Buying rugs that you can use to decorate your home makes a lot of sense. You can alter the overall look of the room without having to spend too much money.
It’s also nice to be able to change the overall vibe of a room without having to substantially change things. Sometimes, the right rug is really going to be able to tie the room together.
The problem is that you might get your rug dirty eventually due to walking on it or having pets make messes. There are many things that can cause a rug to get dirty and matted down over time.
You want the rug to look as vibrant as it can and you wish that you could bring that fluffy appearance back. Is there a good way that you can make a rug fluffy once more?
Read on to learn how to make a rug fluffy again. You’ll be able to have a much better idea of what you can do to bring the rug back to life.
1 – Sometimes Just Vacuuming Is Enough
Sometimes simply vacuuming the rug is going to be enough to get it to look nicer. The act of vacuuming a rug is going to naturally stimulate the fibers and help them to stand up.
If you vacuum your rug on a regular basis, then it might not ever get to the point where it looks too bad. It’s usually when a rug has been neglected for a long time that it will start to look kind of shoddy.
Of course, many people don’t have enough time to meticulously vacuum their rugs as often as they would like to. This means that your rug can get matted down due to foot traffic and other issues.
Try getting your vacuum out to see if using it will be enough to make the rug look nice. If you’re lucky, then you might be able to get away with a simple vacuuming job and you’ll be done.
If the rug is in worse shape, then vacuuming might help, but it might not make the rug look as fluffy as you want it to be. Thankfully, there are still other options to explore that can help you out.
Just remember to vacuum the rug more often so that you can try to keep it clean. It’s good to vacuum your rugs properly because it helps you to get rid of dirt, pet dander, and other things that can become problematic over time.
2 – Some People Have Used Carpet Rakes to Fluff Rugs
If your rug isn’t delicate, then you might be able to fluff it up using a carpet rake. You almost surely own a rake so that you can take care of fallen leaves in the autumn.
A carpet rake is a bit different, but you’re going to be using it in the same type of way that you’d rake leaves. Using a raking motion, you can try to coax the fibers in your rug to come up.
You’re always supposed to vacuum properly before trying to do this. Once you’ve vacuumed, you’re supposed to glide the carpet rake over the surface of the rug in one direction.
It’s imperative to be gentle and to try not to rake the rug too deeply. You could tear the rug or pull fibers out of the rug if you’re too heavy-handed.
Eventually, you should start raking with a push and pull motion to try to coax the rug fibers further. Afterward, you’re supposed to vacuum again.
See how the rug looks now and you might notice that it will be a lot fluffier than before. You can carefully repeat this process to see if you can get better and better results.
So long as you’re being careful while using the carpet rake, it should be possible to fluff the rug safely. This is a good option that can easily be combined with some of the other ideas being presented here.
3 – Try Using Baking Soda and Vinegar
If your rug is dirty and not fluffy at all, then you might need to try using baking soda and vinegar first. People use vinegar to clean various household items all the time, and baking soda is an excellent thing to use when you need to deodorize something.
There’s a good chance that the rug in question might also be kind of smelly if it’s not in the best state at this point. It’s likely got a lot of dirty that needs to be cleaned out of it and you could also be having issues with pet dander.
The baking soda and vinegar should help you out with that. You’ll just need to get some white vinegar, a few boxes of baking soda, a simple spray bottle, a stiff brush, and a good vacuum cleaner to get the job done.
Start by just vacuuming the carpet to get rid of any loose dirt that might be present on the rug. Try to be thorough, but don’t worry because you’ll be vacuuming the rug again later.
Next, you’re going to need to sprinkle some baking soda on the rug. Try to coat the entire surface of the rug with baking soda.
Grab a stiff brush and start working the baking soda into the rug. You want to try to brush from a few different angles to ensure that you’re penetrating everywhere.
The best thing to do at this point is to allow the baking soda to stay on the rug for approximately twelve hours. If you started this job in the morning, then you should be able to return to it in the evening for the next steps.
Vacuum the baking soda up using your vacuum cleaner. Try to get everything and take your time to ensure that you do a good job.
Now it’s time to add the vinegar and you’re going to need to make a vinegar spray to effectively apply it to the rug. Put one part vinegar and one part warm water into a spray bottle.
When you have the vinegar spray ready, it’s going to be time to mist the rug using the spray bottle. Try to get the entirety of the rug.
Use your brush to try to fluff the rug and get the fibers to stand up. Combine straight brush strokes with circular brush strokes to get the best results.
Then you just need to allow the rug to dry. It should be clean and much fluffier if everything went as planned.
4 – Sometimes Heat Can Work
There are occasions when using heat might be a good way to make a rug substantially fluffier. You can actually use an iron to try to bring certain types of rugs back to life.
Basically, you use the heat to loosen up the fibers and this should help them to have an easier time standing up. If you don’t have an iron that you can use, then it should be fine to use a hairdryer.
After vacuuming the rug, heat an iron up to medium to low heat. Place a damp towel on top of the rug in the areas that you’re trying to revive.
Press the iron into the towel for a few seconds at a time. Do this until you’ve covered every area that you’re attempting to fluff.
Grab a comb or a stiff bristle brush to start working the rug. You’re going to try to move the fibers back and forth to get them to stand up.
Let the rug dry and see how it looks. If the rug looks fluffier than it did before, then you should be pleased with your job.
When you’re dealing with significant rug issues, the rug might still have matted sections that will need to be dealt with. You can simply try to do the same thing with the iron once more to continue making progress.
It might take several times of using the iron like this to truly make the rug appear as fluffy as it should be. Hopefully, you’ll be able to revive the rug and make it look how you want it to.
5 – The Melting Ice Method
If you haven’t had the best luck with the ideas that have been presented so far, then you might like the melting ice method. Using melting ice on your rug might seem like a very strange idea, but it’s actually been proven to work really well.
When you have spots on your rug that are matted down due to being underneath heavy pieces of furniture for long periods of time, the melting ice method is a great way of bringing the rug back to life. It should be able to work fine to fluff up a small rug, but it might be harder if you’re dealing with a large area rug.
You start out by vacuuming the rug as always. After this, you place an ice cube on the part of the rug that is matted down.
Allow the ice cube to melt on the rug and then get a clean towel that you can use. When the ice cube has melted, you’re supposed to blot the liquid with a clean towel as gently as you can.
After you’ve finished blotting the area with the towel, it’ll be time to try to fluff the rug a bit. Try running a spoon over the area to fluff things up and make the rug look better.
You could also use a stiff-bristled brush if you would rather go that route. For many people, this method will be enough to solve minor issues with rug dents, but it can be used to help fluff larger rug sections as well.
6 – Get the Rug Professionally Cleaned
Of course, you might not have a lot of time on your hands to try to fix a messed-up rug. Some people are very busy and they don’t have many hours that they can spend doing things such as this after work.
If you don’t have to try these DIY methods that have been presented so far, then it might be better to hire professional cleaners. You can have your rug cleaned by professionals and they will be able to make it look as good as new.
There are a few ways that you can go about doing this as well. Some people call experts that come out to clean their carpets and they also help them to clean rugs.
You might also find a business that will allow you to take any rugs that you have directly to them for cleaning. Either way, this is going to be a good way to take care of the problem without it being a hassle.
The fastest way to get your rug looking fluffy and beautiful again will be to call professionals. However, it’s going to cost you some cash if you decide to go this route.
Depending on your financial situation, it might not feel good to have to shell out cash to get your rug looking nice again. It isn’t as if cleaning a rug will bankrupt you, but it might cost more than you want to pay if you’re looking to keep costs low.
Final Thoughts
You’ve been given many different ideas for how you can make your rug look nicer again. It isn’t necessary to accept that your rug is going to look shoddy and matted down from now on.
Bringing a rug back to life and making it look fluffy will be possible. Sometimes it’s going to be good to try many different things to see if you can get the rug to look like new again.
Start by vacuuming the rug and then see if you can clean it thoroughly using baking soda and vinegar. The baking soda will be fantastic for removing any odors, and the vinegar will be a powerful cleaning agent.
You can try to coax the rug fibers to fluff up by using a carpet rake, but you can also use something like a brush if you’re worried about the carpet rake being too harsh. There are many options, and you’ll just have to consider them all.
If you don’t have the time to handle this task yourself, then you can always call a professional cleaning service to get the job done. Usually, the same people who clean carpets will also be able to help you with your rugs.
I have two Associate’s degrees, one in Medical Assisting and the other in Computer Technician, and I am roughly five classes from a bachelor’s degree. Though I never ended up working in the medical field, I have five and a half years of experience in IT. I recently became a stay-at-home mom to my two young boys, and I’m so excited to start this adventure with them! In my spare time, I love to bake and read pretty much anything I can get my hands on.