Persian Carpets and Weather

An old fashioned snow cleaning:

It's important to put the oriental rug outside in a protected unheated location for several hours or overnight so that the rug is the same temperature as the snow.

The best time to do this is when it's quite cold and dry out. The snow should be dry, not soggy.

Rather than rubbing the face of the rug with snow, place it face down on an area of clean snow and use a broom or the back of a rake to beat it lightly but vigorously. You want to create a lot of vibration without mashing the rug down into the snow.

When you're tired of beating the rug, flip it over and you'll be *amazed* at how much dirt was left behind. You can start with a thoroughly vacuumed rug and still get amazing amounts of dirt and broken off wool fibres out of it (the dirt cuts the wool fibres--up to half the dirt you get out of a wool rug is actually broken fibres).

Flip off the excess snow either by very gently shaking it or by holding it up while someone else beats the back. If you shake the rug, don't be like boys in a locker room! The shaking motion should barely move the rug, just enough motion to make it shimmy gently. Hard flipping can actually damage the rug.

Move the rug to a clean spot and repeat.

When you've run out of energy or run out of clean snow, hold up the rug and have someone gently beat the back of it to get as much snow as possible out of it.

Take it back to the protected area and lay it out to let the rest of the snow sublimate out of the rug. Sublimation refers to a process that a substance goes through when it turns from a solid (snow) to a vapor (ice) without going through a liquid phase. This only happens in cold, dry weather.

Take the rug back in the house and let it warm up to room temperature before you reposition it.

It will look beautiful Somehow the dry snow treatment intensifies the colours and makes the rug look brand new again.