I recently acquired an antique hooked rug. It was hooked (punched?) with yarns and has a very pretty design and colors. Unfortunately, it was very dirty. Here’s how I cleaned and washed the rug to get it clean enough for using in the house.
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Cleaning the Antique Rug:
Before washing the rug, I wanted to get as much of the loose dust and dirt out of the rug as possible. First, I took the rug outside and shook it. When no more dirt was coming out of the rug during shaking, I vacuumed the rug. I ran the vacuum both across the rug and up and down to try to get as much dirt as possible.
After the vacuuming, I prepared a bath for the antique hooked rug. I did this in my bathtub because of the size of the rug. I ran some cold water in the tub and added some clear liquid dish soap. After running the water, I submerged the rug in the tub.
I let the rug soak for a few hours, drained the water and repeated the wash cycle. I did move the rug around in the water a little bit, but I didn’t want to agitate the rug fibers so I didn’t really move things around a lot in the water.
I repeated the washing until the water stayed mostly clear and then ran a tub of water with no soap for a rinse cycle.
After it was thoroughly rinsed, I rolled the rug and squeezed out as much water as possible and then laid it outside to dry.
It looks a little bit cleaner after this process, but it feels SO much better. It is now soft and no longer crusty feeling.
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