A Look at the History of Carpet Cleaning

For as long as there have been carpets, they have needed cleaning. However, vacuums and carpet cleaners are fairly recent inventions when you compare them to carpets. So how did people manage to clean carpets in the past? There are actually a lot of ideas they turned to. These methods today might seem a tad ridiculous to us, but people in the past swore by them, even going to the extent of actually publishing the techniques in various books and even immortalizing the various methodologies in paintings.

One of the commonly employed methods of carpet cleaning is beating the carpet with a stick. Each carpet section was often hung out on a clothesline in the sun and then beat with a stick in order to loosen and embedded dirt and to shake off any accumulated dust. This method of carpet cleaning is so popular that some people actually use this method today in cleaning area rugs.

This method of carpet cleaning was quite tedious, as other techniques were during this period. Because of this, emphasis was placed on protecting the carpet from dirt and wear. This was done by using druggets to cover up any areas and protect the carpet from spills. Druggets were often used in children’s rooms and other potential problem areas. As such, one can often see them depicted in various painting and illustrations.

Another great idea for past carpet cleaning lay not in a separate method, but in the carpet itself. Some carpets were actually reversible, enabling people to hide stains and gain a fresh carpet when the urgent need arises. Thus, stains can be hid quickly by simply turning the carpet over.

Stain removal is also a very important part of carpet cleaning. Even back in the past, spills were actually quite common and a lot of substances could not be removed by simple washing with soap. Common problematic substances were oil –from lamps- and ink –since ball-point pens have not yet been invented. With ink, people often used lemons in order to remove the problematic stain. With oil, people used lemon juice and a good brushing with bread crust to absorb the oil and get rid of it.

Sweeping the carpet was also a very necessary task in those days, and as such, also enjoyed a variety of ideas both in method of sweeping and the implements to be used in the task. A lot of people swore by the use of tea leaves in sweeping the carpet, mainly because the tea deodorized the carpet effectively. However, tea leaves also tended to leave stains on the carpet when used improperly. Some people also suggested using grass for carpet cleaning, claiming to freshen up the carpet more effectively. Another common toll used in this part of carpet cleaning is a corn broom, claimed to restore the carpet to a brand-new look.

Another substance used in Chicago carpet cleaning was ox-gall. A few tablespoons of ox-gall, when added to warm water, was claimed to serve as a great solution when the carpets need washing. The solution is said to revive the carpet colors effectively, making the carpet look brand-new. A lot of companies actually still manufacture ox-gall soap today for use in carpet cleaning.

Of course, there came the invention of the vacuum cleaner. Did you know that old carpet cleaners were not even powered by electricity? Rather, they were designed to be operated by hand, creating a partial vacuum every time the appliance was swept over the carpet. Soon, though, these manual carpet cleaners were rendered obsolete by the introduction of the electric vacuum cleaner.