We spent the day taking down all the Christmas decorations. We rearranged all the living room furniture and each piece has left little depressions in the rug. It's quite noticable because we have a light colored carpet. I've heard of putting an ice cube on it, but never tried it. Anyone ever try this or have any other ideas?

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), January 06, 2002

Answers

Rip up carpet. Paint or stain floors, whether they are wood or concrete.

In the fall, I remodeled a small house with carpet. Underneath was polished pine, under about 1/4 in of dog dander, tobacco smoke, dust, grit, and other unidentified nastiness.

There is NO way to keep carpet truly clean.

-- Rose (open_rose@hotmail.com), January 06, 2002.

I too prefer hard wood floors over carpet however I have read, but not tried, holding a steam iron over the indented area and "raking" it up. If you try this, be careful not to actually touch the carpet with the iron.

-- Barb in Ky. (bjconthefarm@yahoo.com), January 06, 2002.

sometimes, if you just take a damp rag and rub over it with vigorous motions it will take away these depressions. I have found that with sweeping over them, they seem to go away on their own in a short time.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), January 06, 2002.

The iron idea is good--be sure to hold it ABOVE, not on the carpet. My gripe with some carpet owners is that they always require their guests to remove their shoes (hey, sometimes you aren't expecting to come over and wore your air-conditioned socks instead of your company socks :o().

I always thought that one is supposed to make their guests feel comfortable, not like they're trespassing in a computer "clean room". Speaking of which, I think people who don't want dirt on their carpets should provide those little shower cap thingies (I think they are called "clean boots") for guests to wear over their shoes. This would also be nice for people going through open houses, or repair people.

I too would remove our carpet, but others in the house like it. *sigh*

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 06, 2002.

Whenever I move the furniture, I take my squirt bottle of water and spray the spot pretty damp. Then I take a tooth brush and scrubb the carpet until it all stands up. Let dry then just vaccum. It always seems to do pretty well for me.God Bless

-- Micheale from SE Kansas (mbfrye@totelcsi.net), January 07, 2002.

My mother-in-law can't seem to get a house without white carpet. What's more, if she gets new carpet, it's...white! Quite distressing for those of us with young children! So what was in our house when we bought it? -- White carpet! Just you wait, as soon as I can afford it (which may be a couple of years) it is GONE!

-- Christine in OK (cljford@aol.com), January 08, 2002.

Don Aslett (author) says carpets should be the prevailing color of the dirt around your home, or the color of the messes your family makes, i.e. mashed green beans and carrots, etc.

At one time we had a light brown carpet, and it was wonderfully forgiving. Another house had a blue carpet. Everything shows :(

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 08, 2002.