How to Wash a Rug in the Washing Machine (Without Ruining It)

The question we hear most often is not "does it survive the washer" but "how exactly do I do it". Here is the method we use on our own floors.

Before it goes in

Shake the rug out or vacuum it once; grit in the drum is harder on fibers than water ever is. If there is a fresh stain, blot it with a towel first. Blot, never rub: rubbing pushes the spill deeper into the weave.

The cycle that works

Will it fit my machine?

Depends on the rug size and your drum. We keep an honest chart, from a 2x3 doormat to a 9x12 that belongs at the laundromat, in our Care Guide.

One more honest note: this applies to rugs built for the machine, like our cotton-based washable line with the woven-in non-slip base. A wool or viscose rug does not forgive the drum.

The rooms where this matters most

Every rug we make washes the same way, but some rooms cash the cheque more often than others. The kitchen and the entryway are where ours get their hardest use, and a hallway runner takes more traffic per square foot than anything else in the house. Under a dining table the argument shifts from washing to pattern, which is covered in the dining room guide. At a desk it is the chair rather than the food that does the damage: see putting a rug under a desk chair. Both of those rooms have their own guide now: what actually works in a kitchen, and the entryway, which asks more of a rug than any other spot in the house.

If the rug you want is an odd size, the same construction and the same wash cycle apply to anything cut to measure.