Routine Maintenance & Care
Regular maintenance is key to extending the life of your rug and keeping it beautiful. Here are essential practices to incorporate into your routine.
A routine for a hand-knotted rug in ordinary use. The tips below say when a room calls for more:
- Every 1–2 weeks: vacuum the front side to side, with no beater bar (once a month in a little-used room)
- Monthly: open the windows and air out the room
- Every 1–2 months: vacuum the back, half the rug at a time
- Every few months: lift the parts under furniture, let air in, vacuum there and check for moths
- At least every 2 years: turn the rug 180° (more often in the cases below)
- About every 5 years: a professional wash, depending on how dirty the rug gets (a good moment to have any wear checked too)
These practices will help preserve your rug's beauty and extend its lifespan:
Turn the rug 180° so that foot traffic, furniture weight and sunlight fall on different parts of it and it wears evenly. How often depends on where it lies: about every six months in a hallway, an entrance or a sunny spot; about once a year with a sofa, a table or an office chair on it; and at least every two years even in a quiet room.
A good rug pad is worth having under any hand-knotted rug, because it stops friction wearing the rug from underneath. It matters most:
- Under heavy furniture, such as a sofa or a dining table, where it cushions the weight
- In a humid room or region, where it keeps moisture from the floor out of the rug
- Under a small or medium-sized rug in an entrance or a bathroom, which is light enough to slip
- In a home with pets, where it also helps block moisture from accidents
Choose a rug pad made of high-quality materials that won't degrade or damage your flooring over time.
Years of direct sunlight fade a rug’s colors, and when only part of it lies in the sun, that part fades on its own. Draw the curtains or blinds while the sun is on the rug, above all in summer, or fit UV film to the window. With no curtain to draw, cover the sunlit part with a cloth; even a yoga mat will do for a small patch.
Turning the rug about every six months spreads any fading evenly instead of leaving it in patches.
Heavy furniture presses the pile down in the same spots and keeps air and light off the rug. Put padded furniture coasters under the legs of heavy pieces and a rug pad under the rug; under an office chair, lay a chair mat.
Moths like the dark, undisturbed parts under sofas and beds, so vacuum there too and check for them as you go; every few months, lift those parts, shake them out and let air in. When you move furniture, lift it rather than dragging it across the rug.
Damp that builds up in a rug slowly weakens its fibers and draws moths. Open the windows once a month or so to air the room. In a bathroom, or anywhere humid, run a dehumidifier, use a rug pad, and keep the rug away from the shower and the bath: a little moisture is fine, but nobody should step onto it dripping wet.
Once a year, or about every six months for a bathroom rug, take the rug outside into strong, direct sun to dry it right through: one to three hours with the back facing the sun, then only a short time face up, because long sun fades the colors.
Attend to spills as soon as they happen: the faster you react, the less likely a stain is to stay.
On a hand-knotted rug:
- Scrape up the liquid with a spoon, against the pile, into a bowl
- Cover the spot with bleach-free dish-soap foam
- Work the foam in with a white cotton towel and soak up foam and stain together
- Dab dry with a second towel until the pile feels dry; never rub
- Brush the pile back down the way it lies, and slip a bowl under the rug, beneath the spot, to air it
- Book a professional wash for anything that remains
On a machine-made rug:
- Blot —
don’t rub
— with a clean, white cloth to absorb as much liquid as possible - Work from the outside of the spill toward the center to prevent spreading
- Apply appropriate cleaning solution based on the type of spill
- Rinse by blotting with clean water
- Blot dry with a clean towel
The routine above is written for hand-knotted rugs. A machine-made rug asks for less: vacuum it weekly (a beater bar is usually fine on a low synthetic pile), turn it every few months, keep strong sun off it, and follow the machine-made cleaning steps in this guide when it needs a wash.
Our care routine for hand-knotted rugs follows the advice published by Catalina Rug, a Californian dealer in hand-knotted Persian rugs.
Did this help? You may also want to know:
Need Professional Rug Cleaning?
While this guide provides comprehensive DIY cleaning instructions, some situations are best left to specialists. For valuable, antique, or severely damaged rugs, our own professional carpet and rug cleaning service in the Marbella area is on hand to ensure your precious items receive the expert care they deserve.