Why You Should Let Ice Cubes Melt on Your Area Rugs

Whether you’re rearranging or moving out, heavy furniture can leave behind quite the unattractive footprint on your carpet — and the longer the furniture has been there, the harder it is to persuade those carpet fibers to spring back into shape. So instead of laying on the floor with various carpet cleaning tools for hours on end, just try this super simple method.

Out of all the different ways you can choose to remedy your problem, but we prefer the “set it and forget it” method: ice cubes! Line up the ice cubes like little soldiers along the dents in your carpet, leave them to melt over night, and when you check back in the morning the dents should be completely gone.

You may need to blot up excess water with a towel if it hasn’t yet dried, and if you can still kind of see a ghost of the dent, grab a fork or a credit card to and give the carpet fibers a quick fluffing. If you still see the dent, use the hose attachment on your vacuum to pull the carpet back into place.

Unfortunately this trick doesn’t work 100% of the time, but it’s a great place to start before you start bringing in the muscle. This handy little hack is fine for most carpets, just be sure your carpet content can handle a few small puddles of water that might appear the next morning. And if you’re using this trick on carpet with a low pile, or an intricately woven pattern, it may take a few ice drops before you start to see results. The higher the pile, the better.

If you find yourself wondering why you can’t just quickly saturate the area with water and work the fibers up with a fork or credit card, it’s because you want the carpet fibers to soak up the water slowly, making ice cubes the perfect tool for the job.

This post originally ran on Apartment Therapy. See it there: Why You Should Let Ice Cubes Melt on Your Rugs and Carpet