Going out on a limb

A while ago, I indulged myself by purchasing one of those thick-pile, undyed wool area rugs at Ikea. It used to be in my bedroom back in the LBC. At some point it migrated out to the living room -- I think it was at the point that I realized Pork Chop wasn't going to take his shoes off before walking on it, so we might as well give the public the benefit of walking on it, too.

Anyway, in the course of our various remodeling projects, it really took a beating. Fuzzy Wuzzy, as Pork Chop affectionately calls it, ended up choked with drywall dust and pretty grubby around the edges. We'd been meaning to have someone come over and clean it since our recent move so we could once again have it grace our living area, but those plans kept falling through. Fuzzy Wuzzy has remained all rolled up in a corner of our apartment.

When we went to the laundromat on Monday, Pork Chop suggested that we take Fuzzy Wuzzy along and throw it into the washer. We debated the pros and cons of this for maybe 5 seconds and decided to go ahead and risk it.

We threw the rug into one of those industrial jumbo washers with cold water and a little bit of detergent and I just crossed my fingers and hoped I wasn't saying my final farewells. Fuzzy Wuzzy emerged looking surprisingly clean and unscathed. We carefully loaded it into a dryer, set it on low, and Pork Chop hovered nearby and reached in periodically to turn it this way and that to reduce the risk that the rug would become horribly misshapen. About 45 minutes later, a fresh, clean Fuzzy Wuzzy emerged and we trotted it home. We have a new-looking rug that seems none the worse for the wear. I have been mildly concerned about shrinkage and so I've been eyeing it critically to see if it seems the same size. I think it might be a little bit smaller, but it's impossible to tell for sure. All in all, I'm pleased with the results, and it was a heck of a lot cheaper than a carpet cleaning professional.