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Do-It-Yourself Home Remedies
VACUUMING
How can you dust your small and large rugs? The best way is with a vacuum cleaner. If done on a weekly basis you can greatly reduce the amount of damage caused by dust and grit. Use a vacuum attachment (you don't need the beater bar brush for this) and run over the top of the rug. Go from end to end (the end is the part with the fringe tassels), and run the attachment along the length of the rug WITH the nap of the face fibers. Pet your rug like you would your dog to determine which way the nap goes. As with petting an animal you will know when you are going with the nap, and when you are definitely going against it. Run the vacuum attachment "with the nap." This picks up the dust that has settled on top but has not yet reached its way down to the base yet. Another plus with the attachment is that you don't get the fringe tangled in it and torn as with your regular upright vacuum cleaner.
Once a season (check your calendar to see when we are supposed to have these in Spokane!), you need a stronger rug beating. The smaller rugs and the flat woven pieces (Kilims, Dhurries and Navajos) can be taken outside and shook, or smacked lightly on the backside with a broom. The larger ones should be placed face down (fuzzy side down) on to a hard surface. Then a beater bar upright vacuum should be slowly ran along the back of the rug from side to side (don't go from end to end because there is a chance that fringe will get sucked up into the beater bar). Make sure the vacuum is at the “normal” or “high” setting level. All you want is the vibration of the vacuum to do the work, and this can be done at these settings (don't use the “low” setting). The vibrations shake the dirt loose from the base and onto the hard floor. You can then flip the rug to the other side and sweep up what has been shaken out, and then vacuum the top from side to side. If nothing has been shaken out of the rug, then you are doing an excellent job with your routine weekly dusting.
Be sure to also flip over the corners of your larger rugs to inspect the backside of the rug for insect activity (moths and carpet beetles tend to frequent areas with little air circulation and no direct light, such as underneath sofas or behind curtains). Their larva resembles “sticky” white lint.
Dusting is the first and last step of our cleaning process (there is ALWAYS, even after we have dusted for hours, more dirt and loose wool fibers loosened up to shake out after a bath … especially if a rug has not been washed for many years). It is the key step in cleaning, which is why having your rug cleaned in the home is an absolute no-no.
SPILLS
Your Rug First-Aid Kit: Club Soda and Cotton Towels
The time will come when something is spilled on your rug – coffee, soda, wine, or a pet stain. There is a tendency to grab a cleanser and scrub the area, and this inevitably causes more permanent harm than good. A good emergency system is a very simple one, and all you need is club soda (or soda water) and cotton towels.
BLOT – RINSE – BLOT
• * Immediately blot the wet area with a white cotton towel. Do not scrub the affected area, as this untwists and breaks the wool, silk, or cotton face fibers
• * Look at the wet towel for two things: is the liquid spill absorbing into the towel, and also, are any of the rug’s dyes absorbing into the towel.
• * If the rug’s dyes are absorbing into the towel, blot a bit more and then STOP. No more work can be done to this area without causing the area’s dyes to bleed together. This type of damage can devalue your rug, so you want to stop before you make it worse.
• * If the rug’s dyes are not absorbing into the towel (you only see the spill absorbing into it), then place a folded towel underneath the affected area and pour a small amount of club soda onto the area (or use a saturated sponge to apply the club soda).
• * Take another towel, blot the top side, and then place a folded towel on top (creating a “sandwich” – folded towel, rug, folded towel). Stand on the area for a few minutes (or use a heavy book), and this will help the moisture to absorb from both sides, hopefully displacing the spill. The sodium in the club soda absorbs the foreign element, and the towel then absorbs this liquid.
• * When you believe the absorption to be complete, elevate the treated area so that airflow can reach the back of the rug (prop it up) and dry the foundation thoroughly. Do this for at least one day to ensure complete drying. The rug will feel dry to the touch, however, the cotton foundation will still have moisture within it, and without air drying it will eventually lead to mildew and dry rot.
PETS:
This is the most common “emergency” call that we get, and it’s not a very “appealing” topic for a newsletter, but I know that I need to cover this because this is the one thing that can permanently stain your rug. Supplies that you need in your household arsenal: Club Soda, Vinegar, Cotton Towels, and Nature’s Miracle enzyme treatment (you can find this in pet stores).
For pet urine and pet vomit, because they are stains that hit the rug as a hot acid they will actually stain and “set” the wool fibers rather quickly. You need to follow the steps in Newsletter #1 as far as the “spill procedures” (blot the substance, saturate with Club Soda, blot again, and air dry thoroughly). If the rug has dyes that might bleed if wet, then substitute a 50/50 Vinegar and water mixture for the Club Soda. For pet feces, you must pick up as much as you can before you begin the Club Soda process.
As far as the odors associated with all of these pet “emergencies,” misting Nature’s Miracle on the areas helps to remove some of the odor-causing bacteria. Resist the urge to saturate the rug with Nature’s Miracle, because pouring any product on a rug is never a good idea. With pet urine, if it is a substantial amount then it has (again because it’s hot and acidic) penetrated the wool fibers and has been absorbed into the cotton foundation. In this case, the only way you will be able to remove the odor will be to have the rug get a bath and be soaked in an enzyme solution.
A different set of problems arises with “old” pet urine stains … When a pet stain is “fresh” it is a strong acid stain. After it has dried completely, and has sat in the fibers for several days, it becomes a strong alkaline stain. The problem with high alkalinity and wool it that it yellows the wool, and it also counteracts the mordant process that holds the dyes on to the wool fibers. It essentially makes the dyes dissolve. Even a rug with colorfast dyes will bleed and fade in areas that have old pet urine stains in it. So the key in handling all pet stains is getting to the area as soon as you can (and use the steps that I’ve suggested so that you don’t cause more damage).
If you get to the stains quickly, but you just cannot get the odor out, then you can contact us. We have a commercial enzyme product that we can immerse a rug in for the purpose of removing the odor-causing bacteria in the rug.
Some final pet advice – pet hair. If you are going crazy trying to vacuum up pet hair from your rugs or your upholstery, here are two tools you can use. On rugs, the pet hair entwines itself with the individual rug fiber, so it is sometimes impossible to pick this up with your standard upright vacuum cleaner. So, purchase a lava rock (we picked up ours at Smart and Final) and rub it along the face of your rug, going “with” the nap of the wool pile. The lava rock will grab onto the hair and pull it off of the rug. On upholstery, you can use a pet sponge, which is a product sold in pet stores. It is the size of a brick, but is a soft material that when you rub along your upholstery pools all of the hair into one pile that can be easily removed and discarded.
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