Home Cleaning Area Rugs

If you have hardwood... That'll ruin your hardwood (forces water into at best, forces water and dye into them at worst).

- For small rugs I toss in the machine
- For medium rugs I schlep to Laundromat & their giant machines
- For large Persian (wool & silk) I use a hose & a scrub brush (big ole serious scrub brush) in summer (this is what I saw the dug dealers doing in the Middle East, and it works like a DREAM), and let dry in the shade. In winter, I shell out $ (in an emergency) to take to a dry cleaner that also does Persian Rugs. OTW... I wait until summer.

Just buy a small waterproof tarp and throw them on that and clean them with your Bissel. If you are able to hang to dry, all the better. We cleaned our area rugs this way last summer out on the driveway. (In the shade, of course)

If you are trying to get them clean for Christmas morning, you may need to just get one of those products that you shake on the carpet to clean it dry.

Good luck

Do not use your big ol' Bissel on the area rugs.... while it is sitting on the wood floor.
No way.
Also do not let it dry.... atop the wood floor.
Yes, you have to move them to dry.

Do all of this, outside.
And move them outside to clean, before you start cleaning it.

Take them out on the driveway and do them. Turn them over and do both sides. If it sucks the edges up when you go over them then you might want to consider taking the rugs to the carwash and using the floor mat clips and doing them that way.

That's how I do mine BUT they are smaller braided rugs that cover part of the kitchen area in front of the sink and stove. Sometimes I have to see if the clips in THAT particular stall are strong enough because they get worn out but once I find a set that is strong enough to hold the carpet while it's wet I tend to us that stall over and over. They will be very very heavy and wet when done. So hang them over the fence or something that air can get through. Not on something that will allow them to stay dry next to it. This way they get fresh air all through the area's and dry in a day or so.

If you have some heavy lawn chairs you could put them in the garage and lay the rug over them. That way the warmer air inside would help them dry where it's very cold and wet outside.

My mother used to take our Persian Rugs (that are wool and cannot be washed) and lay them good side down on freshly fallen snow for about half an hour (when it has stopped snowing). The capillary action of the snow pulls the dirt out of the rug. We would have 2 big dirty rectangles in the snow when she brought them back in and vacuumed them.

I just use my carpet scrubber and I have them on hardwood floors. It does not expell that much water.