Step by Step Guide on How to Clean a Cotton Area Rug
Many people like to have cotton area rugs 8 x 10 in their houses. It looks nice and feels comfortable to sit and walk. They are a perfect addition to any room in the house including bedroom, living room, family room, and nursery. To ensure it keeps looking great, you need to properly maintain it by washing it at least 1 time every time. This is because dirt will accumulate on your rug over time, especially when it is placed in a high traffic area. Keeping your carpet clean is keeping your family members in good health and it also give positive impression to your guests.
Step One: Shake the Dust Off the Carpet
You arrive on this page because you are eager to know how to clean cotton rugs. First things first, prior to washing the carpet, you must remove all objects such as toys, or other items on it. If you notice some visible debris, use your hand to pick them up and put in a small trash bag. Once you have picked up all the large debris, it is time to take it outside and shake off the tiny dust hidden in the fiber.
- For a large rug, you can hang it on a clothes line and use a rug beater to beat out the dust. If you don’t have a clothes line to hang it, you can ask 2 – 3 persons to help you hold the carpet while you beat it with a rug beater.
- With the rug beater, beat it starting from the bottom and then work your way upward. Once you are done beating the front part, you can flip the rug over and beat the back part.
- Beat the rug at a slow rate at first because too much dust might come out. After awhile, you can beat at a faster rate to ensure most of the dust have been removed.
- If the rug is manageable by hand, hold it as far away from you as possible and give it a few shakes.
- When shaking the rug, always wear a safety nose mask to prevent inhaling the dust particles.
Step Two: Vacuum the Carpet
After that, you can take it inside the house and vacuum it. Vacuuming the cotton area rugs 8×10 can effectively remove the rest of the dust that did not come off.
- The rug must be laid on a completely flat surface so that it is easy for you to vacuum it.
- Use the floor rug attachment
- Don’t use an attachment that has the beater brush.
- Avoid vacuuming the fringe of the rug fiber and leave threads running along
- Use a high setting when vacuuming a large rug
- Use a low setting on a small rug to avoid shrinkage and piling Challenge
- Vacuum in the same direction that the knotted pile is pointing. You can tell which direction the knotted pile is pointing by using your hand to caress the fiber
- Vacuum both the top and underside of the rug
Step Three: Prepare the Rug Detergent Solution
After you’ve done the vacuuming step, you can wash the cotton area rugs 8 x 10 with a shampoo that is suitable for the cotton material. Shampooing the rug with a detergent can give it a cleaner look just like when you first bought it from the store. You must first learn how to mix the rug detergent in the correct proportion before learning how to clean woven cotton rugs.
- You can buy the rug detergent at the store or you can make a homemade solution.
- When shopping for a detergent, always check the label to make sure it is safe to use on wool carpet. If you are not sure, you can ask someone at the store to help you in selecting the right detergent. When asking the staff, mention what type of cotton rug you are cleaning and whether you are washing it by hand or a steam cleaner.
- If your cotton area rugs 8 x 10 have pet stains or smelly odor, make sure you use a shampoo specialized for that
- Choose from a scented shampoo or non scented shampoo.
- On the bottle label, you will find the instruction on how to mix the cleaning solution. Be sure to follow the instruction and don’t mix the solution on your own.
Step Four: Washing the Carpet
Now that you have prepared the detergent, you can start to shampoo the carpet. Here, we provide some tips on how to clean woven cotton rugs.
- To hand wash the carpet, you must first fill a mist spray bottle with the detergent. Prior to using it, shake the spray bottle well so that the content is mixed properly. Once the detergent is shake thoroughly, you can spray it on the carpet. Don’t over spray it until it becomes too wet.
- The next step is to use a carpet or nail scrub to scrub the area that you’ve just wet with the mist spray.
- Scrub the carpet slowly and gently as scrubbing with too much force will damage the fibers. Spot cleaning the carpet prior to shampooing it can reduce the amount of scrubbing it needs.
- After you finish scrubbing the entire carpet, use a damp towel to wipe away the foam. Then, press a dry cotton towel on top of it to soak the soapy residue. You will have to prepare several dry towels to soak the moisture if it is a large area rug.
- The second method is to use a steam cleaner to clean the carpet. It is always best to use the cleaning solution products recommended by the manufacturer of your steam cleaner. You can also use other cleaning solutions compatible with your steam cleaner if you want.
- Push the steam cleaner slowly over the carpet to allow it to effectively clean each spot. It has to extract some detergent water and move the brush to clean it. Pushing too fast causes extra detergent water to be left behind and increases the chances of developing mold growth. After shampooing the carpet, push an extraction machine over the entire area of the rug to extract the moisture.
Step Five: Dry the Carpet
The last step is to dry the carpet. After extracting the moisture, you must immediately take it outside to dry under the sun. Don’t dilly-dally and leave your carpet inside the house as it can have mold.
- Large carpets like cotton area rugs 8 x 10 will take a few days to dry. You must spread the carpet out on a hanging rack or clothes line. If you don’t have a hanging rack or clothes line, you can spread it out on several chairs, for example, two chairs in front, two chairs in the middle and two chairs at the end.
- Bring the carpet in if it starts to rain so that you don’t waste your effort in drying it. As soon as the rain stop and the sun is out, you can put the carpet out to dry again.
- Let the rug stay under the sun until there is no more bad smell. There is a type of stale smell that linger on the material when it has moisture.
- Never put your cotton rug inside the dryer or press it with hot iron or use a hair dryer to blow it. The high heat from these appliances can destroy your carpet.
- Try to remove as much moistures as possible before putting it under the sun to dry.Once the upside is dried, you can dry the underneath side. Both sides have to be dried completely before you bring it in.
