Carpet Dents, I Hate Them

I got the cleaning/rearranging bug yesterday. I got up and first thing, spent 3 hours scrubbing bathrooms, fridge, closets! When the hubby got home, I enlisted his aid to help move some really heavy furniture. My family room is pretty big, 22 x 25, and I had the furniture taking up almost the entire room. I decided to change it into a smaller, cozier gathering area. This left me with a good sized area behind the sectional to use Kettlebells and Stability balls, with a good view of the big screen. Perfect!

This is part of the room after I finished.


My exercise area, behind the now smaller family room.


This is turned a slight bit to look behind the sectional. Notice anything out of place on the carpet?


Yep! All that heavy furniture really smashed down the carpet fibers. I have these marks everywhere something was sitting, I hate them! Good thing I have a plan of action.


1 iron set to steam + 1 damp towel = a Remedy! Dampen a towel, I use a hand towel, and place it over the dented area. Using your iron, move it over the area just barely over the towel. I don't just set it down for fear of melting my carpet.


I kept it moving back and forth, side to side, for a few minutes.


Then I removed the towel. Big difference already! Use your fingers or some sort of carpet rake and fluff it up. It's almost as good as new!


Some deeper smashed areas will require more than one attempt. Some may also require a little time to come back to where it used to be.
This is a Before/After picture of the spot I just did. Now to get busy on the rest of the room. This could take all week!


Be very careful to not burn your carpet! I am guessing that a garment steamer or a carpet steam cleaner might do the same thing. Alas, I have neither of those. I have also heard that placing an ice cube in the dents and leaving it overnight, will fix it too. I have not tried this method. I plan on leaving an ice cube in one tonight and seeing if it worked in the morning...to be continued!

The verdict is in! That was simply a waste of a perfectly good ice cube. I saw no difference, even after I fluffed it with my fingers. I'll continue using steam to get them out. It works well for me, just a bit more time consuming.

-June 21, 2012