Area Rug Cleaning Gone for the Weekend

So , it is Friday May 20th and the long weekend has started here for a lot of people in Victoria, BC. The community plaza where our office is has been pretty dead today, so how does one pass the time and be productive when all I really want is to be out enjoying the day?

Well first I vacuum and clean and organize everything I can, second I browse rug blogs and leave comments on ones that appeal to me and third I read one of the most definitive area rug books by Ellen Amirkhan and Aaron Groseclose, A Comprehensive Guide to Oriental & Specialty Rug Cleaning. I am trying to learn how to identify all the different types of Persian rugs.

I am having a hard time retaining all the different characteristics of Heriz, Shiraz, Tabriz, Bijar and many more Persian and Tribal rugs. To learn more about these Persian rugs the best website is by Barry O'Connell and that is where the above link will take you to.

I may never be able to remember how to tell the different Persian rugs apart, but just the fact that I know to identify between Persian, Turkish, Chinese, British Indian, Belgium is more than most people can do. I do know what a Hamadan Persian rug is and sometime I see a Nain Persian come in for cleaning, but because I don't see every type of Persian every day I tend to lose the identifying factors after I read them.

I, however, do not have a favorite type of Persian rug. I am embarrassed to admit this, but I like a Persian rug based mostly on the colours and design. Being in the rug cleaning business I feel like I should love all Persians because of the history and workmanship and I do appreciate that about Persian rugs. What I don't like is the almost over use of the colours of red and navy. After you see a hundred or so of red and navy Persians in a few months you grow bored of that combination no matter quality and history.

Now for those of you who own a Persian rug with the red and navy colour palette don't think that I hate your rug it is just not my choice of rug to personally own. We all have reasons for liking the area rugs we do and that is one of mine.

Here is to a nice and safe long weekend for those who get one, RugloverMary- picky Persian lover

Experts are Me

Today I felt like a area rug blogging expert. I will be the first to say that my success with blogging is 75% trial and error.

I signed up for some free blogging advice from actual blog experts and put to use their tips. Sounds simple enough, but when I started out I was a bird in the wind. I am still going back through my old blogs and tweaking them.

Every time I upgraded the look of my blog I have to re-format the older ones. The down side to that is I have written a lot of blog entries. The good thing is that they are easier to read.

I received an e-mail asking me to link to another area rug blog yesterday. I read the other blog and decided to give tips instead of linking to it right away. It is a new blog, started in Feb 2010, so I passed along where I got my tips from. That way the author wouldn't be writing for almost two years before coming across how to write a better blog like I did.

It feels good to pass along what I have learned about blog writing to someone else. I am not by means a go to person in blog writing, but I will share my knowledge.

I am better with area rugs. Ask me anything and I can either tell you or direct you to where the answer is.

Thanks for reading, RugloverMary

Silence in the Area Rug World

I follow a few blogs about area rugs and I haven't seen any new posts from any of them lately. It is the summertime and priorities have changed with children out of school and holidays, but you still have to work at some point. Why are you not blogging about area rugs?

I like to read what other rug cleaners and experts have to say. It helps me in my job and increases my knowledge and curiosity of area rugs.

When I am passionate about my job it carries onto our clients and they get excited about rugs as well.

When the other rug bloggers don't write they are keeping all of their knowledge to themselves. Not sharing what you do doesn't help make you stand out from the crowd.

Share your passion!

Thanks for reading, RugloverMary

Treasures can be found

I am awaiting the arrival of spring to our fine city of Victoria, BC. We had snow near the end of February and it is has been cold ever since. It is suppose to rain next week so maybe it will warm up then.

The other day I was doing a Google search for area rug blogs, I randomly search to see where I land on Google. There are way too many sites selling area rugs and not enough talking about area rugs.

Some of the sites I looked at would benefit from an overhaul from a different web designer. The sites are either way too busy or hard to navigate to find out any good information.

As I was getting up to the double digits in Google pages I came across a site that caught my attention. The only thing remember about the site was that they needed to use a better font size and colour. Even with the font issue it did lead me to a another site that is very beneficial.

If you are a carpet cleaner, a carpet installer, or an area rug cleaner this should get the brain cogs moving. Instantly bind or serge extra pieces of carpet into beautiful area rugs. Click http://www.instabind.com/ to find out what I am talking about.

It is a very easy way to edge carpet, don't think it would work very well on area rugs.

I have decided to write another blog about area rugs. This blog will concentrate more on the history and technical side of area rugs.

I hope you enjoy my new blog.

Thanks for reading, RugloverMary

Rug Blog topics

A quiet day here in the shop today, even the phone took the day off.

I had an interesting morning. I went to see the ear, nose throat specialist to see what is wrong with me because my throat flared up again this week. Almost every two weeks I am sick, not good. I have never been this sick for so long ever.

The throat specialist was baffled as to why my throat is not playing nice. Just more proof that I am a mutant who makes up my own diseases. He gave me huge 1 inch blue pills to take. If they don't help I may have to have my tonsils taken out.

What?! Aren't I a little old to have the done? I thought I asked that 2009 be better than 2008 was? I guess I didn't make it clear that the year was supposed to start off good and stay good.
I will deal with the road blocks as they come, however big or small they may be, sigh.

I need to start taking before and after pictures of All areas that come in for cleaning. I am missing out on a lot of blog material. The only problem I have about using people's area rugs in my blog is the moral issue.

Am I over stepping any privacy boundaries? I do not mention any names, I just talk about their area rug and the story behind it. I need to start telling clients that I write a work blog and if it would be okay to use their area rug. That should make me feel better about using pictures of the rugs.

I don't have anything more interesting to say today, sorry.

Thanks for reading, RugloverMary

It's Snowing Rug Fluff

Today's blog topic is area rugs that shed and shed and then shed some more.

This area rug came to us a few days ago for cleaning. This fluffy shag area rug is very soft to touch and I love the chocolate brown colour

The client had to stop using the rug because of the excessive shedding. When we unrolled the rug and rolled it back up there were six little tufts of fibers on the floor.

If that is what comes out from just unrolling I would hate to see what comes out after it is walked on.

The fibers of the area rug are wool, but in two different textures. There are the fuzzy thick tufts and twisted narrow fibers.

The two different types of textures make the area rug harder to clean because the long narrow fibers lay down and trap the soil underneath them.

To thoroughly clean these rugs it would take a lot of hours separating the fibers and making them stand up and even then we still couldn't guarantee 100% soil removal the rug is just too dense.

Why do these shag area rugs shed so much before and after cleaning?

The construction of these rugs has the fibers looped through the backing with no knots used.

Another reason could be the quality of wool used to make these rugs. If they use low quality or shorter pieces of wool it would tend to shed more than a better quality and longer strands.

What can you do to not buy an area rug that sheds?

Easy, rub your hand in a circle on the rug. If you are getting a fur ball or a lot of fluff walk away. Check the back of the rug. If it looks like the fibers are looped through like above, tug on a single fiber. Sometimes they can easily be pulled out.

When there is a fabric backing on the rug smell the rug front and back. Some rugs can have a permanent bad odour.

By smelling and rubbing an area rug you can avoid buying a rug that you will not be happy with.

Thanks for reading, RugloverMary.

Words and Memories are never forgotten

I must start this blog off on a very sad note. Back in Oct 2008 I wrote a rug blog titled, Slammed into a brick wall. It was about my step-dad having cancer. I am sad to say that he lost his battle on Dec 25/2008. Yeah! He died on Christmas day. He was with my mom and very content. He was holding her hand, telling her that he loved her and then closed his eyes. I don't have a lot of memories of my step-dad, but I know he loved me dearly and he made my mom very happy over the last 9 years. He is very loved and will be missed.
Now onto work:
I received a comment on one of my first blogs I did back in January 2008 about Rug Education. I forget about old area rug blogs because everyday I am thinking of what to write about next. The questions I received were: What is the best type of area rugs that will stand up to an active 7 year child and if I had any recommendations for online area rug stores.
The answer to what is the best type of area rug for children is a machine woven synthetic rug with either olefin or polypropylene fibers. They are very durable, resists most stains and spills and lasts for years. One of the only down sides to synthetic area rugs is that they are not heat resistant, so they shouldn't be placed near a fireplace or other heat sources. Make sure you can see the pattern or colour of the rug on the backside/underside of the area rug. Try to steer away from area rugs that say they are hand tufted, or have a fabric backing, as beautiful as they are they don't stand up to spills and lots of activity.
As for online stores, that is a little more tricky to answer. I, for one, don't do any online shopping, gasp! I know, so it is hard to give advice about something I don't know much about. A good site to check out for online recommendations is The Rug Rag, they are your Premier Destination for Information about Area Rugs. The Rug Rag guys can answer your questions and give you advice on the right area rug for you.
Thanks for reading, RugloverMary

Revisiting the Past

Today I took a trip down memory lane and skimmed all of my past blogs. I have a hard time re-reading anything I have written, be it an area rug blog or a poem. I over analyze and want to change it, but over all my rug blogs aren't bad. The tone of my area rug blogs have seemed to mature some what, but that could just be the fact that I am more comfortable writing them. One of my favorite rug blog titles is, 'I am F.I.N.E, thanks for not asking', it cracks me up even though the rug blog is about something else.
This week at work, the whole two days, has been busy with clients picking up their clean area rugs. We got to spare a husband from his wife's wrath which was very good. Their rug has a colourful history with us. They brought it in a 3x5 Karastan area rug in April 2008 for cleaning, that was the month there was the fire in our building, and they had to wait 6 weeks to get it back. It had a repair done to it during it's visit with us. It came back to us two weeks ago because it got red wine spilt on it. My co-worker and I both guessed that it was red wine as soon as we saw it which didn't put the husband at ease at all, he thought that he was going to be in hot water, but all went well the red wine disappeared because they brought it in right away and didn't try to get it out themselves.
I just did a search on Google using the search words 'rug blog' and guess what? my blog that I plugged with the keywords was on page one. When I used the search words 'area rug blog' the same blog popped up on page three. I am not obsessed as to where my area rug blog pops up, but it is very good exposure and it makes the boss happy and that is what it really comes down too. Okay that is a bit of a lie. I love being on the first page of Google because it makes me feel that I am doing something right and what I write matters to someone other than me.
Thanks for reading, RugloverMary

Random Rug Blogging

I got inspired by www.rugmaster.blogspot.com last blog about rug blogging. I did a search using 'rug blog' and I couldn't find my blog, so I tried 'area rug blog' and I was on the fifth page which was disappointing and it was yesterday's blog that popped up. I decided to self promote my area rug blog today. My rug blog jumps from page one to page three depending on the search words used and the day.
I read other rug blogs and most of them are written from the technical view of rugs and rug cleaning, I do not come from a technical background in rug cleaning or weaving so mine is more personal and raw. Raw is a great way to describe my rug blog. My boss gave me no instructions on what to write or how to write my area rug blog. He wanted to see what I would do with it. He likes how I write it and gives me suggestions and tips as needed. The hardest part about writing a blog is time. It sometime takes me any where from several hours to days to finish a blog, but clients come first.
The other day I am coming into work and I noticed a bit of an usual sight. Located in the window sill next to our door was a seashell. A bit odd since we aren't near any place that would have seashells. I took the opportunity to snap a picture of it and of course I tweaked it a little bit. Yes I am a strange one, but I appreciate the little things. Speaking of little things I am also including pictures of my much loved Chihuahua, Texas and Jack Russell, Daisy. Whenever I have a bad day as soon as I enter my home they come and greet me with wagging tails and kisses. How can that not make your day better when you know that you have been missed and are loved. I know that some people reading this think I am insane for owning two dogs that are known to be hyper and yappy, but I assure you that my dogs are very well trained and calm. They both spend most of their days sleeping and don't think about disturbing them, unless it involves the park, a ball, or food. I do not allow the dogs into the kitchen when I am cooking, so Texas will lay at the 'boundary line' and watch me very intently. He sees everything that falls to the floor and when I give the okay he runs in to clean it up. Daisy is very smart sometimes too smart and loves to cuddle and take Saturday afternoon naps. I love both of my dogs very much and couldn't image my life without them. Since getting Texas in October 2007 Daisy has become demanding. If Texas wants to get petted he pushes his head under your hand, Daisy has started to that now too. She has picked up on his questionable habits, whereas Texas has only picked up a few of her good habits. They get along very well. We were a little concerned at first because Daisy was an only dog for 5 years, but we were worried for no reason. It is kinda funny that I have 2 dogs since I was always a cat person, but that was before until Daisy and Texas. They have such strong and unique personalities you can't help but love them. I still have a cat, but she is very independent and doesn't cuddle much, only in the winter when she is cold or feel that you need more hair on your clothes.
Thanks for reading, RugloverMary