How to Clean Your Outdoor Carpet Before Tidying up for the Season
Anyone fortunate enough to live somewhere with open space – be it a compact patio, expansive terrace, or tiny balcony – had a distinct advantage during the pandemic: having a seating area that isn’t inside their home. Even those who hadn’t used these areas before bought outdoor furniture and created a kind of outdoor living space.
An outdoor rug is a key component of these seating areas, making a few chairs and a small table seem like a separate room. But when the summer season comes to a close, you might consider bringing a rug inside for the winter.
And before you roll it up and put it in your garage, basement, or warehouse, you can clean it out. Here’s how to do it, courtesy of Shay Tilander of Family Handyman .
How to clean an outdoor rug
It turns out cleaning an outdoor rug is very similar to cleaning an indoor carpet, explains Tilander . Start by shaking out the rug yourself or with a friend. For especially large carpets, it may be easier to find a sturdy clothesline, a low tree limb, or outdoor railing and hit it with a stick (such as a broom). You can wear a mask for this part – a lot of dust and debris will come out of this rug even if you vacuum it regularly.
This brings us to the next step: vacuum the front and back of the carpet thoroughly. (Of course, if you’re using a regular indoor vacuum, make sure the mat is completely dry before trying to vacuum.)
It’s time to get the hose. Lay the mat on a concrete / wood / brick / uncontaminated surface (ideally on a slope if possible) and spray it with a hose until the water running off it is clear.
Check out the manufacturer’s washing instructions if you haven’t already, and see if they have anything about soap. Otherwise, according to Tilander , you can add a mild dish soap to a bucket of warm water.
Then use a soft bristled brush and a soapy mixture to scrub the mat from end to end. If you find stains that won’t budge, he recommends making a paste with baking soda and peroxide and using it as a spot treatment.
Now the hose comes out again because it’s time to flush. And again rinse the carpet with a hose until the flowing water is clear (and this time not soapy).
How to dry and store an outdoor rug
Draping the rug over the railing to dry may seem like a good idea, Tilander advises against this because it can cause the rug to lose its shape.
Instead, he suggests placing it on a flat surface in a place where there is a lot of sunlight. When one side is dry, turn it over and dry the other side. “Once dry, carpet can become hard and uncomfortable,” writes Tilander . “Give him some time. It will become softer. “
Finally, it’s time to roll up the rug and store it over the winter. And although it may seem like a good idea to turn it so that the side of the carpet was inside (and therefore was protected) Tilander recommends to do the opposite.
“That way, when you unfold it, it curls downward,” he explains. “If you turn it the other way, it curls up and may stumble. After a while, the rug will become level again. “