I just discovered I'd been neglecting to clean this one spot in my house for years — experts warn it's crucial, especially if you suffer from allergies

If you’re anything like me, your home cleaning regime has probably become muscle memory. I tick the same tasks off my to-do list every week, confident that I’m scrubbing and dusting all the nooks and crannies in my house. But it turns out I’m not giving my floors - or my rugs - the TLC they desperately need, and you might be doing the same.

Yes, whether you’ve transformed your lounge with the best living room rug ideas or covered up colder hardwood floors with softer area rugs, knowing how to clean a rug should be on your radar anyway. But when was the last time you cleaned the underside of your rug? I can honestly (and rather embarrassingly) admit that I have never done this.

However, experts say the underside of a rug is one of the many places we’re all forgetting to vacuum - and failing to do so can not only affect the air quality in a home but also ruin your rugs in the process. So, this is how often you should do it and how to clean underneath a rug as efficiently as possible.

Why you should clean the underside of your rug

The process to clean a shag rug or any other type of rug is largely the same, but most people focus primarily on the bits of a rug that you can see. However, as Kirsty Barton, Marketing Manager at Alternative Flooring, explains, ‘People often forget the underside of a rug, but maintenance to this is also key.’

This is echoed by Laura Harnett, founder of eco-cleaning brand, Seep, who says, ‘Underneath your rug is a place that you will often forget about and simply vacuuming the surface will not get rid of the dust and particles that will have become ingrained in it, especially if the rug is in a high footfall space.’

And this isn’t just the underside of the rug itself, either. This also includes the area of the floor underneath the rug, too, as this can get just as dirty.

This is particularly important if you have hardwood floors and a rug that slips, as everything from dust to pet (and even human) hair can accumulate under there and collect on both the floor and the rug. This can lead to a major drop in your air quality, potentially triggering severe allergy symptoms or resulting in nasty odours.

Laura Harnett

Laura Harnett is the founder of eco cleaning brand, Seep. She is determined to help as many people stop using unnecessary plastic as possible by encouraging them to switch to plastic free cleaning tools. She also recently appeared on Dragons’ Den and landed not one, but two Dragons to invest in her business.

And while the best air purifiers can certainly help to improve the air quality of your home and reduce these symptoms, an air purifier can’t stop dust completely. This means that any dust, pet dander, or other airborne particle that gets stuck underneath your rug will stay there until it’s agitated again. Then, it will re-enter your breathing space and potentially irritate you in the process. This is particularly worrisome during hay fever season.

Meaco's Managing Director, Chris Michael, warns, 'Dust and dust mites increase the onset of hay fever and similar allergies, so reducing and regularly removing dust all around your house in advance of the allergy season will ease the causes of allergies.'

That’s not the only reason why you should clean the underside of your rugs, though. Large build-ups of dust and dirt underneath the rug can actually damage the fibres of your rug and ruin its overall quality and structure over time. This means you may have to replace it earlier than you’d like - and these can be expensive.

So, if you want to prolong the life of your rug and improve the overall health and well-being of those in your home, it’s well worth adding this extra task to your cleaning regime. There’s an art to this, though.

How to clean the underside of your rug

1. Take your rug outside and give it a good shake

You’d be surprised how much dirt and debris can build up in the fibres of your rug, so Kirsty advises to ‘remove it carefully by bringing it to an outdoor space. Shake it vigorously to remove immediate dust.’ This will remove any loose debris and do so in a way that will ensure it won’t make its way back into your house.

This step is especially important when cleaning a wool rug, as dust can embed itself into the deep fibres. And if you need an extra helping hand, Laura suggests using ‘a broom, old tennis racket or hockey stick’ as DIY rug beaters.

2. Clean the floor underneath the rug

Before you take the rug back inside with you, you should then take the opportunity to clean the floor underneath where the rug would usually lay. How you do this depends on your preferences, the tools at hand, and your flooring type.

If you have hard flooring, I’d suggest using a handheld vacuum cleaner to suck up the larger debris before using one of the best mops to clean underneath (making sure the floor is bone dry before moving on to the next step). If you have carpet underneath, you should use your vacuum.

3. Vacuum the underside of the rug

When you’ve cleaned the floor, you can then turn your attention to the rug itself. So, grab it from where you left it and flip it onto the floor so the underside is facing upwards. Then, use one of the best vacuum cleaners to give it a good clean.

Ideally, you should use a vacuum cleaner that comes with a dedicated brush bar cleaning head (rather than a universal cleaning head that can be used for both carpets and hard flooring) so it can work hard to vacuum pet hair and remove embedded dirt.

4. Consider using a rug pad

One of the main reasons why dirt and dust collect under a rug is because it slips and slides on the floor. And as Liza Garrison, the Director of Product at Ruggable, explains, ‘Using rug pads also extends the life of your rug by keeping it in place and preventing slips. It also allows for better air circulation underneath, reducing the chance of moisture and odours getting trapped.'

Alternatively, you could use rug grippers to keep it in place. Ideal Home’s Content Editor, Sara, swears by these AYSKTN Rug Grippers from Amazon for the rugs in her home and found them to be one of the only things to stop her rug from sliding around on her lino kitchen floor.

5. Repeat the process regularly

To maintain a healthy air quality level in your home and keep your rugs in tip-top condition, you should repeat the process and clean the underside of your rug regularly. Ideally, this should be once a month - but the exact regularity will depend on your circumstances.

If you have a rug in a high-traffic area and have a home full of messy kids and pets, it may be that you need to clean it more than that. If you have a rug in a low-traffic area and don’t have those things, you may be able to stretch it out a bit. So, it’s best to keep an eye on the underside of your rug and clean it when you notice dirt build-up.

FAQs

Can you use a carpet cleaner on the bottom of a rug?

Although the best carpet cleaners are an excellent choice when cleaning rugs, they’re designed primarily to clean the top of a rug. Because of this, most experts would advise against using a carpet cleaner on the bottom of a rug, to avoid any unwanted damage.

As you can’t see the bottom of a rug, you may be able to get away with not cleaning any marks or stains. But if you want to get rid of them, Laura Harnett from Seep suggests using a mixture of washing-up liquid and water to spot-clean the underside of a rug. She says, ‘Work in the warm, soapy liquid with a cloth. This is gentle enough to create some suds and won’t damage the underneath of the rug.’

She adds, ‘After soaping, rinse the rug under running water like a hose pipe or pour water down it. You’ll need someone to help with this as it’s best to hold the rug at 45 degrees to let the water run off. Then blot it to remove excess moisture and leave to air dry under side facing up to protect the colour of the rug surface.’

Then, always make sure you wait for the rug to dry completely before placing it back down to prevent mould growth.

Do I need to mop under my rug?

Yes, it’s a good idea to clean under your rug on a regular basis, as a huge amount of dust, dirt and debris can get caught under there. However, it’s worth using a vacuum cleaner or a dustpan and brush to remove larger debris before you do this.

Then, try not to use too much water when mopping the space under your rug, and allow the space to fully dry before you place the rug back on top. If you don’t, this can lead to mould growth and horrible odours.

So, when was the last time you cleaned the underside of your rug? I definitely know what I’m doing with the rest of my day...