Maintenance Tips: Make Your Rugs Last Longer

The cleaner you can keep your rug the longer it will last.

In this article we outline some tips to help you get more life out of your rug.

1. Rearrange Your Furniture It is good to move your furniture from time to time to change the traffic pattern in your house. Your rug is worn down faster where people walk.

2. Vacuum the carpet regularly Dirt helps wear down the fibres in your rugs. Vacuum regularly and place runners at your home's entrances. Also consider a "no shoes" policy. High traffic areas can often use vacuuming once a day while low traffic areas can be vacuumed a couple of times a week.

3. Larger Rugs Depending on how your house is laid out you may have some areas that will have high traffic regardless of how your furniture is arranged. Consider larger rugs in these locations.

4. Don't Let Dirt In Keep the walkways leading to your house clean. This will cut down on the amount of dirt that is tracked into your rugs.

5. Shampoo Rugs To clean rugs shampoo rugs them least once a year. Consult your manufacturers specifications for what type of cleaning equipment and/or detergents are appropriate for your type of carpet.

6. Spill Awareness Treat carpet spills quickly for the best chance of avoiding a stain. If you have kids, make sure they know that they need to tell you about spills immediately so they do not have time to set.

7. Snip Loose Threads To remove a loose carpet threads that stick up above the fibre use scissors to snip it instead of pulling on it that can pull out more than just the thread.

8. Designate Eating Areas Many spills can introduce oils into your rugs which attract dirt and help lead to dingy looking rugs. The less you eat in carpeted areas the better your chances are of avoiding these types of spills.