Tips for Clean Area Rugs During the Holidays

The holiday season is a joyous time that is often filled with family gatherings, themed parties, and meaningful moments spent over treats and feasts. While such festivities bring numerous opportunities for the creation of treasured memories, they can also heighten the risk of spilled drinks, crumbs, and foot traffic taking a significant toll on your area rugs. Since these rugs bring a sense of warmth and comfort as well as a splash of color to your indoor environment, it’s unlikely you’ll want to remove them to protect them from these risks. Instead, consider our top tips for maintaining clean area rugs over the holidays below!

How to Keep Your Area Rugs Clean 

Take a look at this simple but effective advice for preserving the beauty of your area rugs and avoiding the consequences of spots and stains once the holiday season comes to a close:

Install doormats and implement a shoe-free area. 

Keeping dirt and soil out of your home in the first place is one of the most efficient ways to keep your area rugs clean. If possible, consider making your home a shoe-free area, reminding guests to take their shoes off at the door, and installing a shoe rack at the entryway to make this task as convenient as possible. 

If this kind of policy isn’t an option or is difficult to implement consistently, be sure to place doormats at every entry point to collect a portion of the dirt and grime before it enters your home and mars your area rugs.

Vacuum more often than usual.

When you have more foot traffic in your home and more goodies being consumed over soft surfaces, you’ll want to also increase the regularity with which you vacuum. Although vacuuming in itself won’t get rid of stubborn stains and deep-set dirt and debris, it can prevent soil from settling into the backing of your area rugs and becoming more difficult to remove later on. Plus, it will help keep your home looking and smelling fresh for each new arrival. 

Mitigate the impact of stains. 

It’s a good idea to have a go-to stain kit at the ready in the case of a spill or accident. Be sure to have a white cotton towel on hand that can be used to absorb excess liquid. 

To prevent stains from spreading and getting worse, avoid rubbing affected areas. Instead, always work with a gentle blotting motion from the outside in.

Protect rugs during the decorating process. 

Decorating your home in the lead-up to the holidays can be a joy, but it comes with an abundance of packing dust, glitter, and pine needles that can easily embed themselves in rug fibers. Protect your rug with a mat as you unpack these messy decorations. Even better, avoid unpacking decorations over your rugs if possible. Doing this when putting decorations up and taking them down can significantly decrease the amount of debris that eventually needs to be removed from your rugs.

Bring in professionals to clean your area rugs.

Even if you use the above tips, your area rugs are still likely to experience more wear and tear than usual during the holiday season. Bringing in a team of experts to clean area rugs when the festivities have come to an end can help you enjoy a fresh start to the new year!

Contact Chem-Dry to Clean Area Rugs Before or After the Holidays

Whether you want to benefit from the expertise of our technicians in preparation for your holiday parties or during the cleanup process, you can trust us to clean area rugs with care. We’re capable of cleaning rugs of all shapes and sizes, and we’re experienced with handling everything from synthetic to natural fibers, as well as oriental rugs.

Learn more about how we clean area rugs and can revitalize your home prior to or following the holiday season! Call (800) CHEM-DRY to connect with a rug cleaning specialist in your area.