How to Clean an Oriental Rug

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Rachel Yatuzis and I am here to show you how to clean an oriental rug. It is not easy and a lot of times people want to just hire professionals to come and do it but you can do it yourself. It is just a little bit time consuming but you only want to do it once a year when you do your Spring cleaning. So you want to make sure to have a rug beater and if you don't grab a wooden spoon, a broom, something that you can hit the rug with to really knock the dust out of it when you take it outside. You also want to have some mild dish soap, a bucket of water a scrub brush, with soft bristles and a squeegee. Take your rug outside and either throw it over a tree limb or hang it on a clothes line, just get it hung up and then that is the fun part. If you are stressed out this is a good exercise for you. Whack the rug with your wooden spoon or your rug beater and beat all of the dust out of it. You are going to probably want to put one of those masks over your face so that you are not breathing in all the dust or you may be out there sneezing all day long so try to protect yourself and put something over your mouth and your nose so you are not breathing in all the dust and dander that is coming off of the rug. Also make a solution in your bucket with dish soap and water, you know and make it nice and bubbly and grab your scrub brush and use this to scrub your entire rug. I mean start at the top and work your way down, really really get into the fibers. Scrub it really well and get it very very soapy. Then you want to grab your garden hose to spray it off and rinse it out and make sure you do that until the water runs clear so there is no soap left in it. to help it dry faster a squeegee is the perfect thing. While it is hanging up you can squeegee the water out. I used squeegees when I used to ride horses to get the water out of their fur after they would get a bath so it works on rugs, works on horses, works on showers, squeegees are awesome. It is good to help it dry a little bit faster. Make sure it is completely dry before you bring it back inside. You don't want to bring mold into your home and you don't want to have a mold farm under your oriental rug. I am Rachel Yatuzis and that is the best way to clean an oriental rug."