How to Take Care of Your Vintage Rugs - Level 2 Maintenance, Spot Cleaning

*Warning! Look away if you can’t bear seeing a dime sized amount of pet 🤮, but stay if you want to see how easy it is to clean off a vintage rug.* Life happens, especially with pets and kids. No need to worry! Sometimes you just need to do a little spot cleaning, which I refer to as Level 2 Vintage Rug Maintenance. (See previous post here for Level 1.)

If you have pets, then you can totally relate to this scenario. I stumbled across this spot on my vintage rug, which was dry and therefore had obviously been there for at least a few hours. Having a lot of experience with vintage rug maintenance, I was not concerned in the least. It’s way easier to get spots like this up than it is with traditional wall to wall carpet or synthetic rugs, which may actually be stained forever from a little accident such as this.

Here’s how to clean them up:

1. Wet a cloth with a little bit of water. I use cold to lukewarm water. The cloth I used here is an old tshirt that was cut up. They work so well for spot cleaning!

2. Most of the time a wet cloth is all you need, but if you feel like you need a little something more, spray with a mixture of Castile Soap diluted with water. It really doesn’t take that much, so no need to go overboard. Side note: We carry a nice Castile soap in the shop if you need to pick some up. 😊

3. Wipe until the stain comes up. It happens really quickly!

4. Let the affected area dry and then vacuum up the remaining debris.

That’s it! Once you get one of these moments under your belt, you’ll realize one of the many reasons why vintage rugs are just the best for family life. We shouldn’t have to be so precious with our nice home furnishings. If you invest in a handmade, wool rug that can take what pets and people dish out, then you don’t have to!

Spot cleaning is a great way to maintain your rug, but there are other things you can do to keep it looking and functioning its best.  Want more vintage rug maintenance tips?  Stay tuned to find out about Level 3, rinsing it down!  Or tap here for a reminder of Level 1 maintenance.  Head on over to our Instagram page and follow along to see all the latest inventory and find out what's going on in the shop.  

Thank you so much for being here!
😊 Julie

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