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Links Page |
| Do-it-Yourself
Home Rug Care Tips |
| Vacuuming |
How
can you dust your small and large rugs? The best
way is with a vacuum cleaner. If done on a weekly
basis you can greatly reduce the amount of damage
caused by dust and grit. Use a vacuum attachment
(you don't need the beater bar brush for this) and
run over the top of the rug. Go from end to end
(the end is the part with the fringe tassles), and
run the attachment along the length of the rug WITH
the nap of the face fibres. Pet your rug like you
would your dog to determine which way the nap goes.
As with petting an animal you will know when you
are going with the nap, and when you are definitely
going against it. Run the vacuum attachment "with
the nap." This picks up the dust that has settled
on top but has not yet reached its way down to the
base yet. Another plus with the attachment is that
you don't get the fringe tangled in it and torn
as with your regular upright vacuum cleaner.
Once a season (i.e.: quarterly), you need a stronger
rug beating. The smaller rugs and the flat woven
pieces (Kelims, Dhurries and Navajos) can be taken
outside and shook, or smacked lightly on the backside
with a broom. The larger ones should be placed face
down (fuzzy side down) on to a hard surface. Then
a beater bar upright vacuum should be slowly ran
along the back of the rug from side to side (don't
go from end to end because there is a chance that
fringe will get sucked up into the beater bar).
Make sure the vacuum is at the “normal”
or “high” setting level. All you want
is the vibration of the vacuum to do the work, and
this can be done at these settings (don't use the
“low” setting). The vibrations shake
the dirt loose from the base and onto the hard floor.
You can then flip the rug to the other side and
sweep up what has been shaken out, and then vacuum
the top from side to side. If nothing has been shaken
out of the rug, then you are doing an excellent
job with your routine weekly dusting.
Dusting is the first and last step of our cleaning
process (there is ALWAYS, even after we have dusted
for hours, more dirt and loose wool fibres loosened
up to shake out after a bath … especially
if a rug has not been washed for many years). It
is the key step in cleaning, which is why having
your rug cleaned in the home is an absolute no-no.
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| Hanging
Textiles |
| Many
rugs make striking wall hangings, and showcasing
them as your piece of art is a popular choice
for many textiles from silk rugs to tapestries
to small wool rug weavings. Some fragile pieces
that cannot be walked on any longer can also
be prepared to hang so that you can continue
to enjoy them. |
| Velcro |
|
The Textile Museum recommends using
velcro to hang textiles, so we offer
this to our clients to hang their textiles
for display. The velcro is attached
by hand to the rug, and then the mate
piece is attached to a piece of wood
that you can then secure to your wall.
The advantages of using velcro are:
1) The rug can
be adjusted to hang evenly (rugs are
rarely symmetrical, so this allows
you to make slight adjustments).
2) The rug lays
against the wall more evenly.
3) It makes it
easy to take down to dust (at least
once a month to ensure no insects
are making a home behind them).
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