CLEANING CARPETS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 86, 11 April 1923, Page 13

CLEANING CARPETS

HINTS FOB BUSY HOUSEWIVES.

Carpets that are faded should be eprinkled with salt, slijjhtly damped, and brushed with a_ oarpet broom. Another method; is to dip a new mop into warm soapsuds, squeeze out most of the moisture, rub the mop into the surfaoe, and go over the onrpet ajrain with a olotk dipped in warm water in which » little alum has been mixed.

Oarpete should be brushed. eTery day, if possible. To do this thoroughly, sprinkle the surface with fresh and slightly damp tea leaves, or tobacco ash answers the purpose equally as well. Do not b"e economical with the tea. leaves or the tobacco ash, as liberality in this.rosp'eot will pay. Use a soft brush, and only touoh the carpet lightly. If the carpet las no pile, work to' either end or to the oentre with a hard brush, then gp ovor the oentre a seoo/id time with a long handled, soft broom. c When workmen are in tho house they often splash Tyhitewash about the oarpet. To remove those spots damp thorn with a mixture of a teaspoonful of ammonia and one gallon of warm water. Anothpr successful method is to mix one pint of oxuall —it must be fresh, otherwise it will have a most objeotionable smell—with eight pints of. warm soapy water, and apply with a clean sorubbinir brush. Then rub with a flannel dipped into a bucket of warm water, without any eoap. Finish by wiping carefully with a dry cloth. When a carpet has been treated in this way it i« very apt to shrink, and it should", therefore, be nailed down first. Grease stains on carpets should be covered .with powdered French chalk. After it h*s been soraped of carefully frith a blunt knifa tho oarpat should be brushed with a clothes-brush. It may bs necessary to use a second coating of chalk if the stain i« very bad. In this oase, however, sprinkle the chalk underneath as well as on the top of the soiled surface. Learo it for twenty-four, hours, and then brush hard. A small quantity of spirits of turpentine applied with a pieos of flannel will have the same effect.

Whon a moth has once appeared in a carpet it is too late to resort to camphor, tobacco, or cedar, for all throe are preventatives, not cures. Tho best thine'to do is to lay a coarse towel damped with clean c^ld water, and to press with ii hot iron. As months Rather ohiefl.v in corners, tho carpet should bo turned back at tho edg-o and the floor wiped with a hot solution of cayenne. The edges of the oai-pot should them be wrung almost dry in tha. sama mixture.