Your rug or kilim is a few years old now and you have never washed it? Are you afraid ofdoing it? In this blog we will explain to you how to do it easily, based on how we saw they do it in Iran and Turkey (they have already done it for centuries). First of all, we will remove the dustand crumbs from the rug by vacuum cleaning it or shakin it very gently (carefull, if we hit it strongly, the weft will unravel in the fringe area).
We won´t use any chemical products that contain amoniac, because although the amoniac removes the stains, it also takes away the lanoline from our rug. Lanoline is a natural oil that repels stains from our rug, therefore the more amoniac we use, in the long term the less protected our cherised rug will be, and will eventually absorbe more dirt. We recommend you use the type of soap our grandmathers used, Marseille style, or otherwise soap recommended for wool like Norit, Woolite etc.
2. If we have a garden, terrace, garage or roof terrace, we can wet our rug with a hoose and rub the kilim with soap and water and a soft broom so we don´t have to bend over. If we prefer, we can kneel down in the floor and work the surface with a soft brush. Once the whole surfae is wet, with soap and clean, we will rinse the rug with a hoose, both at the front and the back.
2. If we don´t have a space to do the first step because we live in a flat, we can wet a cloth with a little bit of soap and a soft brush. Rinse with another clean cloth with only water.
Now our carpet is like new, comes the driying time. Since a wet rug will take lots of weight, we recommend you do it when the good and warm weather arrives. As far as is possible, it is always better to dry your rugs on a flat surface, but for those of us who live in flats is not alwasy possible, you can hang it up in the washing line, in the balcony etc, but make sure you turn it over every few hours so it doesn´t wrinkle or loose its shape.
Now there is only one thing to do, enjoy our new looking rug!