Keep ‘Em Spic and Span : the Definitive Guide to Cleaning Your Rugs

Leave a rug on its own of a month or so and you will find that a season of muck and grime can make any rug dark and musty. Therefore to keep your carpets an attraction and not a distraction, you will want to keep them clean.

It is imperative that you keep your carpets clean. Although it may seem clean at first sight, if left to its own, it could play home to a wide variety of household irritants. When among the ease your carpets could very well play host to dust mites, molds, fungi, and other potentially hazardous of you I a weary irritants.

Carpets are a bit harder than rugs to maintain since you will be dealing with specialized machines and cleaning chemicals that may a bit trickier to handle. Rugs, on the other hand, can be machine washed or even hand washed.

Rugs are a little smaller than carpets, and because of this, it is harder to vacuum them. So you wouldn't find people who vacuum their rugs very often. Fortunately, their small size also makes it easier for them to be machine washed or even hand washed.

So for rugs that are small, and can fit into your washing machine, try putting them together in one load. Try adding some color fast bleach. However, if you have a lot of rugs you may want to break down your load into two smaller ones. The idea here is to make the load as small as possible since dirt does not dissolve easily with the materials rugs use. You want to put some leeway for the water to completely wash out the dirt and grime.

After a running your load in the washing machine, dry your rugs in the open air under the sun. Fresh air will help keep your rugs fresh as well. The sun has been known since ages past as a good disinfectant. Find a place around your yard where you can hang your rugs. A fence or table converted for the purpose will do for a while.

This makes cleaning throw rugs or smaller rugs, pretty straightforward. Cleaning area rugs is on the other hand, a stiffer business. Since these rugs don't fit into a washer, you may have to use your hands and get down on your knees get them clean. The problem here is that area rugs are too large for the washer but to small for the vacuum to effectively clean.

To start cleaning your area rugs, get a hard brush and some mild detergent and try a brushing the areas lightly with the detergent. Make sure you don't flood the carpet or the rug with water. Just get wet it enough so that minute particles such as hair stick to the brush.

You can then start vacuuming the rug. Use a hand vacuum, or portable vacuum to help clean up your rug. This will be perfect when you send all the particles and grime up into the carpet surface with your earlier efforts.

For stubborn stains such as bubblegum, try cooling them up with ice cubes before scraping them up with a knife. Juice and other stains have proven to be very hard to remove. However, using simple cornstarch will do wonders for your rug. The coffee stains, on the other hand, responds well to a mixture of peroxide and a few drops of ammonia. Ammonia also does well to remove stains brought about from kids running around and spitting milk-not to mention beer stains from older men running around as well. Vinegar also does a good job of removing beer stains.

Remember that rugs, whether they be small or large, always need a good airing out. So if possible, get your rugs, even the area ones, out in the open where they can get some good fresh air.