How to Clean Kitchen and Bathroom Rugs

Kitchen and bathroom rugs help keep the two most dirt-prone areas of your home clean - but only by sacrificing themselves. Here's how to treat them right and get them clean.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Area Rugs
• Bath Rugs
• Mild Detergent
• Stain Removers
• Washing Machines

1. Know that most kitchen and bathroom rugs can be machine-washed. Check on the care tag to make sure.

2. Pre-treat stains with a laundry pre-treatment or stain remover.

3. Separate rugs by color: dark colors in one wash load; light colors in another.

4. Wash dark-colored rugs on the delicate setting with a mild detergent at a warm temperature - less than 90 degrees F.

5. Wash light-colored rugs on the delicate setting with a mild detergent at a hot temperature - less than 105 degrees F.

6. Rinse rugs thoroughly.

7. Tumble dry at a low setting. Or, if the fibers of the rugs are especially delicate, you may prefer to hang the rugs to dry rather than tumble dry them.

8. Brush the fibers lightly with your hand to fluff.

Tips & Warnings

• Check rugs for special care instructions before washing.
• Rugs should be washed separately from clothes.
• To brighten the appearance of white rugs, add a small amount of non-chlorine bleach to water when washing.
• For rugs with rubber backing, avoid high heat in the washer and avoid the dryer.

[SMEDLY]

on 1/5/2009 on 5/01/2009: I have same problem as RipVanWinkle- yellow urine stains on the white rubber backing of my contour rug around the toilet. There are 3 males in the house (with bad aim, obviously!), so the problem will not go away.
I don't want to keep replacing the rugs! I don't see a posted solution for RipVanWinkle's comment; was there one and I just don't see it?

[RipVanWinkle]

on 6/26/2007 Where I appreciate the suggestions above, the rubber backed rug around the toilet has a few "man" made urine stains that have gone thru to the rubber backing. I'm concerned that the "fluffing " technique will only intensify the oder. Is there a special way to launder these little contour rugs?

on 1/2/2006 Many (if not all) rubber-backed rugs will have their backings destroyed by bleach, so always avoid using it with them. This should be mentioned on the rug's care instruction tag; but obviously the tags have sometimes been removed for sake of appearance.

on 11/22/2005 To freshen a rubber backed bathroom rug put it in the dryer and tumble dry on the fluff cycle (no heat). The rugs come out fresh and ready to use. This saves wear and tear on your bathroom rugs that frequent washing and drying cause.