How to Clean a Wool Rug (2024)

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How to Keep a Wool Rug Clean
How to Clean Stains off a Wool Rug

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Although wool rugs can be kept tidy with regular vacuuming, you can learn how to clean a wool rug and remove troublesome stains with this quick and handy guide.

How To Keep a Wool Rug Clean

The best way to reduce the time needed to clean a wool rug is to prevent it from getting too dirty in the first place. Some tips to do this:

Keep dirty, muddy shoes off the rug.
Vacuum the rug at least twice a month—more if it’s in a high-traffic area or if you have pets.
Treat any stains as soon as possible, and use a little bit of distilled white vinegar to remove pet odors.

Steps to follow

How To Clean an Entire Wool Rug

For that once-a-year cleaning, you may want to wait for a warm, sunny day so you can take the project outside. If that’s not possible, pick an area with a large, clean floor surface that can get wet, or you can lay down a clean, waterproof tarp.

Shake Out Dust and Dirt

Start by taking both the rug and the pad outside. Drape the rug over a clothesline, a porch railing, or a few sturdy chairs, and beat it well with a broom. Hardware stores also sell specially made rug beaters for this purpose. If the rug pad needs it, beat it as well and follow the manufacturer’s instructions for cleaning it.

Once you’ve loosened up any dirt and grime in the rug, you can vacuum it thoroughly. If the rug has fringe, start in the middle and vacuum out toward the edges, avoiding the fringe. You can clean this with a smaller hand vacuum if you need to. Make sure to flip the rug over to vacuum both sides.

Clean in Small Sections

After the first step, fill two buckets with water. In one bucket, add a small amount of a wool-safe detergent. Don’t use regular laundry detergent or bleach, which may cause colors to bleed. Starting at one end of the rug and working in small sections, sponge the detergent mixture onto the rug and scrub gently. Be careful not to over-wet the rug—wool can absorb a lot of water, and you don’t want to get soap and moisture deep into the fibers.

Rinse each section immediately after scrubbing it with a sponge dipped in the clean water. Again, don’t use too much water, and make sure both sponges stay clean to avoid pushing more dirt back into the rug. Once you’ve rinsed away as much soap as you can, blot the section dry with a towel. Repeat this process on each section of the rug.

Let the Rug Dry

It’s very important to get the rug completely dry so that moisture doesn’t remain trapped in the wool fibers. Hang the rug up outside or place it near a heavy-duty fan to speed this process up, but even then, keep in mind that this can take several hours. If you washed the rug pad, also give it time to dry fully before putting it back in place. You can take this opportunity to clean the floor that would normally be covered by the rug.

How To Clean Stains off a Wool Rug

Stains that get deep into the pile of the rug are best handled by professionals, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do some stain-fighting yourself. For liquid spills, always blot gently with something absorbent like a paper towel, being careful not to spread the liquid or push it deeper into the rug. For spills with solids, scrape up any staining material on top of the rug with a spoon or spatula. The exception is mud, which will actually be easier to remove once it has dried.

Quick Tip

There are specialized products for stains on wool, but never apply these directly to the rug. Instead, put them on a cloth or sponge and dab this onto the stain. You may want to test any cleaners on an inconspicuous spot first to make sure they don’t damage th

Get Help From the Pros

If you have many wool rugs in your home, rug cleaning can be a lot to keep up with. For help, consider hiring a professional cleaning service like The Cleaning Authority. Visit the company’s website to learn about its services and get a free quote.

Our Conclusion

Wool rugs are extremely durable, and if you maintain them, they can last a lifetime. They should be rotated every six months so that they wear evenly. With regular vacuuming, a wool rug should only need a substantial cleaning about once a year. For wall-to-wall wool carpeting or particularly valuable rugs, you could hire a professional, but you can give other wool rugs a good surface scrubbing yourself.

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