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You love your pet, but you also love your antique or custom rug and want to keep your rugs clean. You certainly don’t need to choose between the two, you need to find a way to clean their messes – or better yet – stop them from happening! We all love our furry friends, but let’s face it, they’re messy creatures. Preventing a bathroom accident or an upset stomach on your rug, or cleaning an already existing one, is easy with these tips.
1. Apply Pet-Deterring Scents
One of the most popular ways to prevent an accident is to make your rug as unattractive as possible to your dog or cat. Thankfully this doesn’t mean anything bad for the rug itself, you just need to apply a scent that your pet will avoid.
For dogs, this means a splash of vinegar in the area around your rug. Not directly on the rug itself, just the immediate area surrounding it. Dogs avoid the smell of vinegar and will be less likely to make a mess nearby.
The secret weapon to keep a cat away, however, is citrus. This can be a citrus-scented aromatic or a cleaning product – though don’t spray your rug directly with Lysol anytime soon! Since cats are picky about their bathroom behaviors, make sure they’re using their litterbox too – sometimes cats don’t use one because they feel uncomfortable, so consider moving it around.
Aside from bathroom or stomach messes, wool is naturally moisture resistant and hides dirt like nothing else, so as long as you clean it regularly, you don’t need to worry about dirt and stains from fur and oils.
2. Cleaning a Mess
Sometimes a dog or cat gets sick or doesn’t make it outside in time. It happens, but it’s no fun to clean. To save yourself some trouble, though, a simple DIY solution makes use of classic improvised cleaning supplies. Vinegar, baking soda, and detergent. Sprinkle a generous layer of baking soda on the mess area and leave it there for anywhere between 30 minutes and a few hours. The longer you leave the baking soda, the better it will absorb scents. Afterward, vacuum it up.
Mix vinegar, warm water, and dish washing detergent in a bowl. Take a scrub brush and your cleaning solution to the rug and start scrubbing away, applying a little bit of the fluid at a time. Scrub the area for a few minutes and immediately blot the spot with a paper towel.
Leave your rug to dry in an elevated position – or hang it if you can – so that it gets maximum airflow until it’s dry.
