How I Clean Area Rugs and What I’ve Learned

Have you ever tried cleaning your area rugs? Well I decided to give it a go and I wanted to share with you my experience.  It was time to replace the rug in my living room but rather than go through the task of picking out a new one I thought I’d bring it back to life with a cleaning.

I have this cheap $90 rug shampooer that I used. I figured the worst that could happen is it didn’t come clean and I’d have to get a new one. The entire cleaning process took about 30 minutes, thats moving the furniture, cleaning the rug, repositioning the rug, and putting the furniture back in place.

As you can see in the photo above I’ve cleaned half the rug, the left side has been cleaned and the right side is the dirty side. I tend to have wear and dirt in the traffic area and the rest of the rug was quite clean. I was hoping the cleaning would even out the traffic area to look a little cleanser. I knew it wouldn’t look like new but it had to get better. 

I was quite impressed with the ability of this little machine to draw all the water back out of the rug. I had no water leakage through to the wood floors; which was good. I was worried I do damage to them with a damp rug but that wasn’t the case. It is winter so the heat is on but the cleaned rug was completely dry in an hour. 

I did use the chemical cleaner that came with the machine but once that gone I’ll use a vinegar and water solution for cleaning. My mom always cleaned out entire homes wall to wall carpet once a year and she always used hot water and vinegar. The house did smell like vinegar until the carpets were dry but its a much cheaper and natural alternative to the cleaning solutions.

What I’ve learned:

1. The Hoover cleaner does a great job for area rugs or small areas. I wouldn’t purchase this machine to use for an entire homes carpet cleaning needs. It’s easy to assemble and use, and is light and compact for storage.
2. The quality, the nap or pile, of an area rug’s not high so don’t expect to clean it often and get more life out of it. I normally replace mine once a year but cleaning it once at the 6 month interval will get me by. 
3. For me the purchase was a bargain for the cost. It keeps my rugs looking nice and clean with little effort and it’s a fun little machine to operate.

Another chore off my list of things to do, now on to the master bedroom for a spruce up.