How and how to clean a rug from dust, dirt and odors at home?

A rug (or carpet) is not just a design element, but, above all, an excellent insulating surface that gives the room coziness. Any carpet needs cleaning procedures over time. True, taking it to a dry cleaner or car wash, where such services are often provided, is not always convenient and financially accessible. But this is not scary, craftsmen know how to clean the carpet themselves, without big expenses and the need to move all the furniture to remove it from the floor.

What kind of cleaning is needed?

Cleaning a carpet at home is not just washing on the floor. Different situations require different cleaning methods.

• If there is an abundance of dust and dirty deposits, thorough dry cleaning can help out. Some wet methods will also help.
• If the carpet looks old, worn out, you just need to refresh the color. There are recipes for this too.
• An abundance of stains from food, dyes, blood or something else is a reason to start removing stains. More potent compounds are needed here.
• If a smoker lives in the house, or there is a small child or pet, the unpleasant odors of smoke or urine will inevitably be absorbed into the pile. This will be a separate cleaning method.

In each of these cases, you can use both industrial products (sometimes very expensive, but very effective) and proven “grandmother’s” recipes, the ingredients for which are more accessible to any housewife, and the result is sometimes not inferior to the effects of store-bought formulations.

Before any type of cleaning of the carpet, vacuum it thoroughly first. Such dry cleaning will greatly facilitate the subsequent process.

Getting rid of dust and dirt

If the carpet has accumulated so much dust that a vacuum cleaner can’t handle it, it’s time to address the issue. After all, an abundance of dust means, first of all, the presence of a strong allergen, especially dangerous for small children, asthmatics, and people with respiratory diseases.

What methods of getting rid of dirt and dust exist?

• Everyone is familiar with being knocked out on the street. But this process is very dirty, requiring considerable effort. In addition, the rug will have to be removed from the floor.
• Knocking out in the snow. This method also has a significant drawback - seasonality. The carpet is laid out on the snow and covered with plenty of snow on top. After a few minutes it is thoroughly swept away. Now the carpet needs to be thoroughly beaten and dried thoroughly.
• A huge palace, which simply cannot be taken outside, will have to be cleaned directly on the floor. To do this, you can moisten the surface of the rug with water from a spray bottle and sprinkle it generously with regular table salt. After an hour, the salt, blackened by dust, is carefully swept out with a hard broom (or removed with a powerful vacuum cleaner).
• In this case, cleaning the carpet with a washing vacuum cleaner is very effective. If you don’t have one on your household, you can cover the carpet with a large damp cloth and give it a good run with a beater.True, the process will have to be repeated many times - section after section, and this will require time and effort.
• Synthetics can be washed with ordinary washing powder, which is scattered over the surface, foamed and passed over the carpet several times with a brush. After this, you need to lay out dry rags on it that absorb moisture well.
• “Homemade vanish” copes well with dust and dirt, which, by the way, helps remove most stains. It contains 2 liters of hot water, soda and washing powder - a tablespoon each and 60-70 ml of table vinegar. The product is sprayed onto the carpet, treated with a brush, left for 10 minutes, after which the residue is removed with a rag or a washing vacuum cleaner.

Refresh the color

A faded, tarnished carpet will look newer and fresher if you use one of the following recipes:

• Mix salt and lemon juice in approximately equal proportions. This composition is scattered over the carpet, thoroughly treated with a brush, and then wiped with a damp, clean cloth.
• The brightness and richness of the color will be restored by soaking a sponge or brush in salt water and passing over the entire surface of the carpet.
• Grate 2 potatoes on a fine grater, add a small amount of cold water (about half a liter), and let it brew for a couple of hours. Then filter and wipe the resulting liquid onto the carpet. Potato starch perfectly refreshes the pile.

Fighting odors

If the carpet requires removal of not only dust, but also odor, available home remedies will also help:

• Wipe the surface of the rug with a clean sponge with a vinegar solution (about 30–40 ml per liter of water, depending on the strength of the “aroma”).
• On a light-colored carpet, you can sprinkle regular baking soda, leave it for a while, and then vacuum it.
• For dark carpet, you can use a different composition: a pinch of manganese, 20 drops of iodine and a liter of water. The components must be completely dissolved, after which the “flavored” area is treated with the solution. Next, you need to wash it from the remaining mixture with a rag and blot it with dry wipes.
• Conditioner, which is used to soften laundry during washing, also perfectly repels unpleasant odors, while leaving behind a pleasant aroma. They simply wipe the desired area.

Removing stains

This is an eternal problem, especially in families with children and animals. Spilled, spilled, dripped, dropped... Carpets get dirty in everyday life.

Removing carpets from stains must begin with determining the nature of the stains themselves. Only then can you choose the optimal cleaning product. So, what stains are removed with what?

A very dirty rug may need to be treated several times. If the spots on it cannot be identified, you can try “general therapy” with the following means:

• Laundry soap. They need to thoroughly rub the dampened stain and leave for some time.Then wash off any remaining foam and dirt. Repeat if necessary.
• Soda. It is diluted with water to a pasty consistency and thoroughly rubbed into the area of ​​contamination. The further algorithm is the same.
• Household stain removers. There are many of them, for a variety of occasions. If you use chemicals according to instructions, the effect will be impressive.

When using absolutely any product, be it industrial or home, you should always first test its effect on an inconspicuous area to make sure that it will not harm the strength or color of the carpet.

It is much easier not to put stains than to remove them later. To reduce their education, give up the habit of eating in front of the TV or computer, drawing or writing while lying on the floor, and also entering rooms in street shoes, even if you forgot something and don’t want to take off your shoes.

Long pile - a separate conversation

To clean a long-pile rug, you will have to try a lot more, because it accumulates dirt along the entire length of the pile, and not just under it on the base. But this length makes it much more difficult to get to that very base. You will need a brush with long bristles and a lot more time.

But here another problem arises: such a carpet is much more difficult to dry. This means there is a high risk of mold and a damp smell appearing.

To avoid this, you can use some tricks:

• During drying, the room must be ventilated;
• You can speed up the process using a hairdryer or a household heater in the form of a fan.
• Excess moisture is perfectly collected by an old terry sheet. It needs to be spread on the rug, then rolled up and lightly rolled.

There are many recipes for cleaning carpets at home. But it will be much easier to do this if you carry out cleaning in a timely manner, preventing the appearance of old dirt or deeply ingrained odors.