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Caring for area rugs? Tough to vacuum
stirwatersblue Intermediate KS USA Member since 12/13/08 Posts: 2471	Login to reply to this post Like this post Date: 12/15/11 8:09 PM I have two large area rugs in my kitchen. They're rubber-backed and machine washable, and I do wash them several times a year. I vacuum my living room carpets and my bare floors almost daily (we have big dogs who track in mud and leaves and fur and other assorted schmutz). The area rugs, OTOH, are a disaster. I can't really vacuum them, because our big Hoover WindTunnel just sucks the rugs right off the floor, unless there's an extra person to stand on the corners. (Which there usually isn't!) We also have a little Dirt Devil stick vac, and it does OK on the bare floors but isn't powerful enough (or something?) to do the rugs. How do the rest of you care for your area rugs? Mud season is upon us, and I need to stay ahead of the debris! Thanks! ------ ~Gem in the prairie
Miss Fairchild   Advanced USA Member since 8/24/02 Posts: 6990	Login to reply to this post In reply to stirwatersblue Like this post Date: 12/15/11 9:55 PM Your Wind Tunnel should have a Bare Floor height adjustment. That's what I use on area rugs. But failing that, take them outside and beat them--with a broom or sweep them off. I have a jute braided rug in my mud room and when it snows, I'll take it out and lay it on the snow and sweep a little snow on it, then brush it off, You can't believe how beautiful the rug turns out! As if I washed it. -- Edited on 12/16/11 7:55 AM -- ------ "We don't impose our rhythm on Nature. The key is to respect and live within Her." Jean-Charles Boisset, Winemaker "And no, now that you asked, I didn't enjoy that play one bit, and I'd like a refund" Signed, Mrs. Lincoln My Etsy shop: auntmaymesattic My blog: auntmaymesattic.wordpress.com Avatar: First place award for jacket at county fair
Doris W. in TN   Intermediate TN USA Member since 2/9/04 Posts: 6744	Login to reply to this post In reply to stirwatersblue Like this post Date: 12/15/11 11:09 PM Do you have a canister type vac with carpet head? That seems to work well on my washable area rugs. Our Hoover Wind Tunnel upright practically sucks anything up off the floor and it just won't do with the lighter weight rugs.
Canadian Jane Advanced Beginner AB CANADA Member since 10/30/10 Posts: 1155	Login to reply to this post In reply to stirwatersblue Like this post Date: 12/16/11 5:30 AM I have small area rugs in my kitchen. When I just want to freshen them up I throw them in the dryer on air dry for a few minutes. I take them outside and shake them first through.
annemie   Intermediate ON CANADA Member since 1/18/09 Posts: 75	Login to reply to this post In reply to Miss Fairchild Like this post Date: 12/16/11 6:51 AM That is what my mother used to do with her Persian rugs: Put them up-side down in the snow and beat them lightly with something that looked like a tennis racket. It is like a dry wash and supposed to be good for the carpets. I sometimes swish a black woolen skirt through the sow - looks like new after.
Doris W. in TN   Intermediate TN USA Member since 2/9/04 Posts: 6744	Login to reply to this post In reply to annemie Like this post Date: 12/16/11 9:55 PM Quote: annemie That is what my mother used to do with her Persian rugs: Put them up-side down in the snow and beat them lightly with something that looked like a tennis racket. It is like a dry wash and supposed to be good for the carpets. I sometimes swish a black woolen skirt through the sow - looks like new after. I read somewhere online, a few years ago, that that's exactly how they clean rugs in Afghanistan.
beauturbo Advanced CA USA Member since 5/2/09 Posts: 1446	Login to reply to this post In reply to stirwatersblue Like this post Date: 12/17/11 5:24 AM Sometimes on an area rug like that, I actually do stand with one foot right on the edge of it, so it can't get sucked into the vacuum cleaner. Especially if moving it in a back and forth motion. Also if you go back and forth over an edge like that, then not so good if it gets grabbed and sucked in, but on some, as long as you just are walking backwards there, with vac in front of you, pulling it backwards and quickly off the edge of it, then there is no tendency for the rug edge to go frontwards into the roller bar to even get sucked in and jammed into the roller bar, like there might sometimes be, if you were to roll onto it going forwards instead. You could try that, just be real quick and ready with the off switch, if that does not work well.
stirwatersblue Intermediate KS USA Member since 12/13/08 Posts: 2471	Login to reply to this post Like this post Date: 12/17/11 8:40 PM Thanks, everyone! I had totally forgotten about the carpet height adjustment on the vacuum. It helped *tremendously,* especially with the larger rug. The smaller one still got tugged around a bit, but not so badly, and that one is easier for me to stand on (as Beauturbo describes). ------ ~Gem in the prairie
poorpigling Advanced TX USA Member since 12/28/07 Posts: 10059	Login to reply to this post Like this post Date: 12/18/11 10:14 AM I now have a new fear of Black woolen skirts.. hmmm.. I like to hang some of my rugs out on the line and hose them down now and then.. Always COLD water.. Hot water can shrink them. or even cause more running of the dyes..

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