We Did It Again!!!

Folks downtown are probably enjoying a hardy laugh at what the girls and I just did at the CARwash. Shoot! I wouldn't blame them for giggling. I would do it myself if I saw someone else doing the same thing

You see, we have an area rug in our living room. Recently it got mud or something on it that vacuuming, cleaning would not get rid of. So, before we gave a toss into the junkyard, we decided to haul it off to the carwash. This is NOT my first time to do this. Because of my previous success with this technique, I resorted to it again--with great results, I might add.

The downtown carwash like so many like it, provides 4 hooks on the side of the car stall where people can hang their car mats to be washed. In some cases, narrow area rugs can be placed there. However, in our experience, once the fabric is wet, the hooks usually allow the rug to fall to the floor. (By the way, I definitly do NOT recommend that you try this on a dirt floor or one that is heavily laden with dirt or mud.) We normally just lay the rug(s) out flat on the floor then we set the timer to WASH and begin soaking down the rug. Like magic, you watch the water lift the unwanted substance and move it on off of the rug. After I "shampoo" the rug, I switch the timer to RINSE and rinse the rug off completely. I will also tell you that, first of all, I don't see any need in using the car scrubbing tool with the brush on the end of it. Besides, I would be concerned that the blue dye that is dispensed from that tool would probably stain the rug.

After the rug is rinsed, fold the rug into sections. Then, walk on what would be the rug's bottom surface. This "wrings" out much of the excess water. You will probably need an assistant to help you lift the rug from the floor and place in to you trunk or back of van or pick-up. Take the rug directly to your clothesline, clean concrete or other flat surface. In our case, we stretch our rug over three clothesline lines. On a hot day like today, 100 degees plus, the whole rug will be throughly dry within just a few hours. Cooler, damper days wil require more drying time.

Once you lay the rug down on your floor, it is a good idea to vacuum it so that the dirt that has been lifted to the surface will be sucked off of it.

Of course, if your area rug is to be dry cleaned only, I would not recommend this technique.

In our case, we are really pleased with our end results today. There doesn't appear to be any dirt residue anywhere. Lint that we had not been able to get up with our Kirby, just floated until it formed little blls with other lint. It then was moved completely off of the fabric and down the water drain. Anytime that we shampoo our rugs like this, any negative odor is removed.

Anyway, just thought that you might be interested in doing this sometime if you ever have dirt that cannot be removed with an ordinary steam cleaner for rugs.

VLE-B