Washing a wool rug at home

While I did try taking my big wool rug outdoors last winter to clean it with snow, the time had come for a more thorough cleaning.

(The rug is 8 feet by 10 feet, flat woven, and not worth taking to be cleaned professionally.)

First I vacuumed the rug, and did some spot cleaning by hand.

Then I took a tarp out in the backyard, hosed it down, mopped it, and rinsed it off again. I put in on a slight slope, for drainage.

I spread the rug out over the tarp, hosed it down until it was quite wet, and then mopped it with a laundry detergent made for woolens, diluted in water, trying to scrub the detergent down into the fibers firmly and evenly.

I went over the rug again for another scrub, and then gave it a thorough hosing.  At this point there was visibly dirty water draining off at the lower edge. Then I flipped the rug over, hosed the back side thoroughly, flipped it again, and hosed the top one last time.

The hard part of washing a large wool rug isn't in washing it, but in drying it more or less flat. To dry it, I let it sit for a while on the slope, then I brought it down to the basement, and draped it carefully over a futon frame (minus the mattress!) and some other furniture--with the dehumidifier running.  After a day, I flipped it over, and let it dry for a couple days more.

Back on the floor, it looks a bit wrinkled, but it is settling in, and certainly looks a lot cleaner than it did, although there are still some spots that could use special attention.