Area Rug Care
(Continued)

Proper area rug care will ensure your rug continues to look good longer between cleaning. The following tips will help you do the right things.

Area rug care also means a rug pad

Fine quality padding protects the rug, especially when it’s on hard surfaces like tile, stone, linoleum, and hardwood floors. Rugs wear from the bottom upwards. The underside of the rug gets rubbed against the floor, because foot treads on top transfer the weight and shifting to the underside. So, you need a rug pad. This is a thick piece of rubber or foam that rests between your rug and the floor.

In addition to ensuring that your rug does not move or wrinkle, padding will also help in keeping your area rug from getting trampled too flat. This form of area rug care, through reduction of wear, can extend your area rug’s life span by years, or even double its life, especially on a hard surface.

Hanging

Do not use nails or staples at the top of a heavy rug to hang for long periods of time. Use a strong poster holder, or proper clamps, to distribute the weight of the rug evenly. The best way is to have a strong fabric sewn on the back with a metal rod running through the fabric and then hanging the metal rod on the wall. This makes the rug look beautiful on the wall without any hanging mechanism showing and also distributes the weight of the rug evenly.

You might join an online chat group for more rug hanging advice.

Storing

Area rug care sometimes involves storing one's rug. If you must store a rug for a long period of time, wrap it in a sheet or cloth, but don’t use an airtight plastic bag. Handmade rugs need to breathe and will sometimes rot or mildew, if stored in a plastic bag.

They could also be rolled up and kept in a chest or box with some moth crystals, but the crystals will have to be renewed every few months.

Ideally, you should roll large rugs around poles. The protruding ends of the poles should rest on blocks or trestles. It is advisable to let rugs lie flat on top of one another for any length of time.

Do not store rugs in humid, damp, hot, or poorly ventilated rooms, for this causes mildew, which has a musty odor, discolors fabrics, and weakens them. Never leave a rug wet, because failure to remove all the moisture might result in mildew.

Do not store a handmade rug in a hot closet, because its base rug can become dried out and brittle, thus destroying the strength and durability of the rug.

Crushed Pile

(For pile rugs only)

To avoid crushing the same spot over a long period of time, it is helpful to move furniture around from time to time. That way you can keep the furniture on your rug(s), without any damage to them.

If a pile has become indented or crushed by the legs of heavy furniture, brush the depressed area with a soft brush, then faintly mist the area with water. Follow this up by brushing, again.

Rotate your rugs

At least once a year, you should turn your rug around, ideally around 180 degrees. Frequent rotation of the rug can equalize the effect of the sun and normal wear. On bright sunny days, use window shades, shutters, or curtains to help reduce the effects of direct sunlight.

This helps when it comes to cleaning area rugs, because it reduces accelerated wear and fading from sunlight. It will keep the rug looking brighter and more vibrant in general.

It pays to take some time and make sure that you are in a place where you can consider what your area rug care needs will be. This will keep your rugs looking better and they'll feel more pleasing to walk on year after year!


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