I have this fabulous Oriental rug and it’s so soft and pretty. And to tell you the truth, there are no stories that go with this rug because we’ve only had it for 8 months. Except the one time when Husband accidentally flung gravy onto it. :) I think we have a eating-food-in-the-wrong-room problem. Does this remind you of the big spoon in the small bowl incident? Okay, so besides not eating in where you know you shouldn’t, I want to share with you some vacuuming tips to keep your Oriental rugs fabulous.
Tip One: Change the beater brush height.
I recommend changing the beater brush height to the highest setting. Why? Having the brush too low on the vacuum can damage rugs by pulling the fibers and knots out. You want the beater bar to touch the rug fibers to release the dirt but not dig into it and cause balding.
I checked and this setting puts my beater bar even with the bottom so it barely touches the carpet, or rug in this case.
Tip Two: Vacuum front and back of the rug.
Vacuuming the front of your Oriental rug gets the surface dirt up and vacuuming the back “shakes” the deep down dirt out. When vacuuming the back of the rug you do not need to adjust the beater. I vacuum the front first then the carpet underneath it, flip it over and vacuum the back, then vacuum again under the rug.
My rug is small so I can be a little OCD in how many times I vacuum and re-vacuum.
Tip Three: Use the upholstery brush to clean fringes.
Using the beater bar on the fringes will damage them. Take two seconds (or five) to use the upholstery brush to clean the fringes. I use mine to make them all straight and pretty looking for ten minutes until I drag the laundry basket over it. :)
You can also vacuum it between you hands and inspect it for damage.
Now look at how much dirt I picked up from my rug and it’s been at least a week since I last vacuumed it.
Just from one vacuuming! I still get amazed at what I get from my carpet every week.
This rug is probably a 3×5. The bright spot are the clean sheen it gets from light reflecting. Cool huh?!
I had a quick chat with one of my rug cleaning professionals, Norman, and he told me the primary cause of damage to rugs is dirt deep down in the fibers from not vacuuming enough. You would think that the foot traffic on rugs causes more damage but the leftover dirt grinds up against the fibers causing them to fray and break apart. Norman also gave me one other awesome tip: put padding under rugs on bare floors so the rug backing doesn’t scratch the floor. I felt the backing of a rug he was cleaning and it was super scratchy! Something to think about if have a rug or thinking about getting one.
Anyways, I hope these rug cleaning tips help you properly maintain your rugs. Now all I have to worry about is keeping gravy and other food off of mine. :)
Happy Cleaning!
Angela
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Angela Says 
Excellent point about vacuuming both the front and back. I didn’t know this years ago when I was given four huge Persian rugs, and they started to look dingy despite weekly vacuuming. Our carpet cleaning company told me how to get them clean, but they’re so heavy I still wimp out sometimes and don’t turn them over like I should.
That’s okay, sometimes I don’t vacuum my carpets as often as I should. Thanks for stopping by.
great tips! Your rug looks fantasic! Thanks for sharing at Tasteful Tuesdays this week!
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Great tips! Thank you for sharing this at the Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. Hope to see your prettiness again on Monday. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse
Great tips! Our rug could definitely use some TLC. Thanks for sharing at Pin It Thursday!
Great tip. I don’t have an Oriental rug, but do have other area rugs and runners. I never thought of vacuuming the back. I’m going to have to do that from now on. Thanks.
You’d be amazed at how much dirt can hide there.