Two Frugal Things & They’re Both Rugs!
by Katy on June 16, 2025 · 48 comments
Remember this free wool rug that I curb picked a couple weeks ago from the neighborhood garage sale day? It was stained pretty badly, but I could tell it was decent quality. My instincts were correct:
Still actually available on the Pottery Barn website, if you’re looking to spend $499!
I wasn’t exaggerating about the grubbiness, but I possess a rug shampooer and delusional confidence when it comes to my stain fighting skills.
May I introduce my bottle of Folex “Carpet Spot Remover?”
The rug still has a few stubborn stains, but I’m not done working on it yet.
I also brought home this wool rug from a different garage sale pile.
Not as bad, but definitely needing some love. I hit the stains with Folex and went back and forth (and back and forth) with an Oxyclean solution in the machine until it brightened up. The binding needs some reinforcing stitches here and there, but that’s okay as I think I’m going to hold onto this rug for my daughter’s old bedroom. Maybe.
Here she is after her beauty treatment, sunning herself on the front porch.
These high quality rugs were free, but they required work to bring them back to life. These physical items were manufactured from raw materials and crafted by human beings and they deserve to be maintained for as long as they’re still functional. Something being dirty is not a reason to give up on it. Sure, I love sourcing stuff for free, but it’s just as important, (if not more so) that our landfills aren’t filled with still usable items.
Buy used, buy less, repair and mend. Don’t replace something just because it’s dirty.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m inspired! And the rugs look much better. I once got a great pair of kids hiking shoes at a “free store” in Canada. The only issue with them was a bit of dog poop in the treads. I cleaned them up and they were like new! My son wore them and then my daughter wore them.
Gray rug is so cute!!! You are a rock star when it comes to rescuing things!!
I’m also am not afraid of a bit of elbow grease or painting to fix up a free find.
I picked up quite a bit of plastic garden edging. A few blasts with the hose and it was ready to go. In the same pile I also got a plastic garden trellis that just needed a fresh coat of paint. It’s study and ready to go again! Now I just need a climbing rose for it! And I found a metal planter shaped like a watering can that also just needs a coat of spray paint. Keeping things out of the landfill is important t to me. Almost all of my garden decor and flower pots are rescues.
Same here! (from the other Julia T
I love both rugs and the fact that you’re giving them new life makes it worth the elbow grease. A good quality rug made of natural materials is meant to be taken care of, cleaned when soiled, and used for years and even decades. It’s their rug destiny!
Love it. They look great. Can’t wait to see what you get for the one you’re selling.
Thanks for reminding me that I need to do a couple of upholstery cleaning jobs at my house. I’ve been meaning to tackle these for a while as I’m extremely reluctant to part with dirty but still in good shape items!
Great work!
Do you take things that smell of cigarette smoke? And if so, do you have any particular suggestions for getting that horrible smell out? (Clothing with too much fabric softener and scented detergent will immediately send me in the other direction as well).
Vinegar is fantastic for taking smells out of almost anything.
Coffee grinds work great for getting smells out of items you can’t wash good. Sprinkle them all over(inside if a dresser) and let sit open for a few days. It may take a few times. I find lots of open coffee cans at college move out and moving sales that are open so I grab them for this.
I also cannot deal with the STRONG smell of fabric softener used of thrifted clothing – AAACK! I have recently discovered that giving the affected clothing a good wash with my homemade detergent and vinegar and then drying them outside in the sun a few times does the trick. Some items are more stubborn than others like jeans – it takes more time and patience but worth the savings. Homemade detergent recipe from Mary Hunt uses Dawn.
Good job freshening up those two rugs!
1. Recent favourite library read: The Great Alone (Kristin Hannah)
2. Recent favourite charity shop finds: 2 summer dresses, 8 Euro each. I don’t normally wear dresses but they were just so nice I couldn’t resist. I have already worn one of them to a rare meal out. I have decided this will be the year that I am wearing dresses!
3. On the recommendation of a friend I bit the bullet and bought a water flosser. I am hoping this will be my incentive to floss more/better, hence keeping down dentist fees! It will also avoid waste in the long run as I will no longer be buying disposable floss. I did some research as I wanted to buy from a company other than Amazon and finally found a product on a specialised website that was not too expensive but of good quality as per the reviews.
4. I have discovered roasted pumpkin seeds (the green kind) as a tasty and cheap topping for salads and soups. I just dry fry them in a pan until they pop.
5. I now add red kidney beans to my and hubby’s portions of any dinner with mince – spaghetti Bolognese, lasagne, tacos etc. – to stretch the mince which has gone very expensive. This also makes the dish healthier. Can’t do this for the rest of the family though, they don’t like beans unfortunately.
Frugal fail: I missed the deadline for using a reward coupon on a natural beauty care website. I use this website to order a specific facial care product which we use regularly so could have easily placed our usual order.
Folex is great! I’ve been using it for years.
One of the reasons I buy only wool rugs is that wool rugs are far more cleanable than artificial fibers. And with two kids and innumerable puppies over the years, my rugs take a beating.
Folex for stains, My Pet Peed for stank.
Beautiful job on both rugs!
I don’t understand the people who want everything to be new and pristine. It’s crazy how people will toss something once it has a tiny flaw, even when it’s a flaw that can easily be fixed. Their houses lack soul.
That said, I do generally draw a line at rugs found in free piles. My first assumption is that they’re drenched in pet fluids. Also, they’re not easy to carry home. I’m happy that someone is willing to take the chance and do the work to keep them out of the landfill!
Li, what you’ve said is pretty much what I’d have said, so I simply second your comments. I too leave rugs (and upholstered furniture) on curbs alone, for the same reasons. But kudos to Katy for her rescue efforts.
I do have a second-hand wool rug in my living room, but it was of known provenance. 😉
They look great!
There aren’t too many things that I can’t clean in the washer, dishwasher, or sprayed down with dish spray in my sink!
Great job on the rugs Katy! You saved them from the landfills.
Over the years DH has brought home many vacuums put out for trash pick up. They are always clogged (and gross) but he gets them working then we find new homes for them. We don’t make any money but it keeps them out of the landfill.
I love that your husband does that!
Both of those rugs are fantastic! We are a rug-free house because of a dog who chooses to eat them, so I wouldn’t grab a project like that, but I am willing to clean dirty things. This weekend I spotted a free pile and came home with several pieces of clothing, 4 hardcover children’s books, and a cute glass jar with a wire hanger. I thought maybe the jar would need vinegar to get out some hard water deposits, but no, all it needed was a good cleaning with Dawn. There was a table runner that needed stain treatment and is now stain free — even old set in stains usually come out with my Shout + Fels Naptha method. I also stain treated a Jones New York heavy cotton knit zip up cardigan sweater I paid $1 for and it came out perfect. MSRP on the sweater was $79.
We have 2 Vitamix blenders. One we bought, one my dad gave us when he moved. That one is having motor issues (9 years old), but we already know the process for sending it to Vitamix for refurbishment, as we had to send ours in a year ago (at 10 years old and used heavily). It cost us $113 plus shipping to Vitamix, return shipping was included in the $113. Sure that’s more than a brand new non-Vitamix blender, but fixing this Vitamix is the right thing to do. It may only be our “back up” blender, but we’ll spend the time and effort to get it repaired to keep it out of the landfill. We appreciate a company that’s willing to repair what they sell rather than creating landfill waste.
All this makes me wonder why it is that people don’t know how to clean things like rugs? Even if they don’t own a carpet shampooer, they are available to rent at grocery stores and home improvement stores. Maybe there are just too busy trying to make a living, but more likely the skills and values weren’t passed on because repairing/fixing/cleaning is no longer dominant in our culture. Instead, people are constantly marketed to encouraging them to buy buy buy, and stains, frayed edges, and general dirt are used as excuses to justify purchases.
There is also a culture of “that is old” which I’ve run into, as my FORMER handyman was sawzalling my beloved Shabby Chic sofa. (So comfortable, so nice. I was the third owner!). “It was old,” they said. I could say more but I’ll probably cry because I am so upset about it.
Rose,
I would be *FURIOUS* about anyone destroying something of mine without my okay. Glad he’s a FORMER handyman of yours.
Honestly–I want to cry about some of the things he threw out without asking me when I was ill.
But whatever, we’re all about to get nuked because of the insane asshole our fellow Americans elected, so who cares about my antiques?
Rose, thats a good point. Sigh.
Roald Dahl wrote a short story called “Parson’s Pleasure” about an antique dealer who found a rare antique, and pretended he just wanted the legs off it, but didn’t really care — so he could get it cheap. When he went outside to get his checkbook, the owners chopped up the cabinet except for the legs, because it was “old and worthless.” #irony
I wish any of you lived closer–a local-ish person is giving away tons and tons of really nice antique furniture for free. Leftovers from a tag sale. You guys would love it. Even I’m tempted though I own way too much stuff as it is. That ancient black wicker? God I just love it. (Have no room for it. Let someone else enjoy it!) This ridiculously expensive area does have some redeeming qualities, at least.
I’m so jealous!
Man, I wish I could rent a u-haul and make the trip!
Yeah, but I’d insist on giving you some of my stuff too. WOMP WOMP have fun hauling all this stuff back home. Heh.
I, too, love cleaning things up and giving them a second life!
I’m having trouble keeping up with everything and I listed 2 planters of strawberry plants on my buy nothing group. I had been gifted the empty planters from the group, and the woman who gave them to me is picking them up today, all filled and with strawberries growing. The best of Buy Nothing!
Yesterday my husband picked up an IKEA dining chair that someone from BN gifted us. He rode his bike over, but the chair over his shoulder, and ride home. The woman giving the chair messaged me later and said she saw him ride away and that it was a living demonstration of what she liked about our neighborhood and buy nothing.
Good times here!
Good for you, Katy! I immediately put Folex on my Amazon list. We’ve got stain solution for our puppies accidents (increasingly infrequent, thank God). But it’s always nice to have another option.
And I didn’t even have to spend $45 million to hire and support protestors/rioters/looters to get things done. Then again, I’m not a King — or a Queen either. Not even an elected President.
(You should watch the robot dogs video from the parade, though: very weird. The uniforms, from Revolutionary War to present, were amazing. My dad, who was in the Army, would have been fascinated.
P.S. I would have bought the pig, to go with Bambi.
Try My Pet Peed, too. It’s available on Amazon but also from their own site and does a fab job with smells.
https://www.mypetpeed.com/
Gets the Rose Seal of Approval!
I’m so impressed! I saw a rug in the alley not too long ago, but I didn’t even really look it over because I was afraid it was thrown out due to dog pee. And also, in my little condo I really don’t have room for a big cleaning project.
This morning I threw together some leftover chicken tortilla soup and a couple of eggs and scrambled it. It was … pretty awful. I have to remember that not every cooking experiment is going to work.
I rescued a light blue pullover hoodie from the middle of a busy road yesterday. I had to wait a while for the traffic to clear both ways. It’s in good shape, but stained. I washed it this morning and some stains remained, so I treated them with dabs of hand and will let the hoodie sit for a while before washing again. If I can get it clean I’ll donate to Goodwill — too small for me.
I also washed a child size North Face jacket left in the park. It came out great. Sorry for the child who didn’t retrieve it, but glad for the one whose mom buys it from Goodwill.
Katy, fabulous job on both rugs! I have two rugs that I need to clean, and I feel inspired. Neither is wool, but they both add color to our living room, and have been down in our basement for, ummmm, probably 2 years by now (waiting to be cleaned). I have heard/read of people taking area rugs to self-serve car washes, and using the clips that you use for car mats to hang the rug – then use the hand sprayer to power wash it. I guess this is for smaller-sized rugs….but then you have to haul a heavy, wet rug home? I dont know.
Also, what oxy clean type carpet cleaner solution do you use? We have a very old carpet cleaner that we’ve never used….need to check if we have all the parts, and if it works.
We drag our living room area rug outside every summer and pressure wash it.
Since you’re on the topic of stains, what would you do for a stain on a linen shirt? I don’t know what kind of stain it is, I bought it that way. It’s a brownish colored stain. Simply washing it didn’t get it out.
Try hydrogen peroxide. If that doesn’t work, try hair bleach. (Not kidding.) You can get it at beauty supply stores, or hell, if you see cheap hair dye, get it. It’s a stronger solution of hydrogen peroxide which they call “developer.” That will almost certainly remove the stain.
The rugs both look great. I love the rustic Americana one! I’m impressed and I have never heard of Folex, I’ll have to see if I can pick a bottle up.
My frugals…
1. My coworker is out of town and gave us her produce that she couldn’t use before leaving. We inherited a container of mushrooms, 2lbs of mini cukes, a full cuke, ham, a bag of spinach, and an eggplant. Now, to utilize all these things.
2. My son is going away to a two week sleep over camp at a college campus. The camp is free and provides three square meals a day. Thank you food budget gods.
3. This week and last I picked up a box from a free Summer food program for children in the state. There are no qualifications except that you have a child under 18. The box has breakfast and lunch and snacks for one week, you can pick one up for nine weeks during Summer. Last weeks box was about 90% eaten by my hollow legged child. Again thank you food Gods.
4. My very old car wouldn’t work two weeks ago. My mechanic held it for a week and it miraculously is working again but he said he could find nothing wrong with it and didn’t charge me for the visit. I’m not sure. But I’ll just say thank you and keep driving it for now.
5. I’ve avoided grocery shopping for a week and have used up what’s in the house. Cooking most meals at home and bringing left overs and items we have to work. It was nice to take a break from grocery shopping.
Tomorrow is the grand inquisition –er, rather, my property tax protest hearing. So this morning I readied more materials. I had taken dozens of photos with the cell phone, only to find out that they will not accept them. I was going to get someone at Office Depot to help me convert the cell phone photos, but then I got an inspired idea: the library. The professional librarian at the reference desk helped me make printouts. I had to pay 50 cents each for color photo printouts but that still would be cheaper than commercial places. Ended up spending $30 for the thick stack of “evidence” photos. If it saves me a few grand on my property taxes next year, it will be well worth the expenditure.
My hearing is tomorrow afternoon, so wish me luck!
Good luck! Many people in my town are doing the same this month. We recently had a reevaluation.
The rugs are looking awesome! My housecleaner swears by that same rug stain remover, and she, too, can get things clean with a lot of elbow grease!
1. Cashed out my Prolific account (thanks to whomever on this blog gave me the headsup for this!) for £6.25 and $17.77 USD – which will work out to be $11.51CDN plus $24.12 = $35.62CDN, not bad at all for a lot of little dribs and drabs of surveys over about 3 months. It will show up in Paypal and I am going to move it to my savings account.
2. Have been hitting the jackpot at the dented vegetable store, found a couple of interesting recipes to use up cauliflower and tomatoes, they were delicious and cheap AF.
3. Picked up almost 10 pounds of potatoes for $1.49, I baked some last night then halved them, mixed with some aging but still good yogurt, some grated cheese on its last legs, and a goodly shake of sunflower seeds. Packed the mix back into the potatoes and baked until crispy on top. SO satisfying! I am going to back up a large number of the potatoes, now that I have done a test run, and take them to my #1Son. He and my Daughter Outlaw are always grateful for pre-made food, particularly vegetables, as there aren’t many spare moments when you have a baby in your life.
4. My buddy gave me two nice tomato plants, half a container of basil to replant, and a 4-pack of chard that she had only taken one cell’s worth to transplant. I am so behind in my garden due to LIFE™ – however I am keeping my many vegetable babies alive by finding moments to pot them up into larger (water holding) containers until I can get them into the raised beds. I AM watering, so there is that.
5. That same buddy found me two sets of wrist and ankle weights that showed up at her thrift store, $3 per pair, which is a decent price indeed. I had lent/given a set to my Daughter Outlaw as she has huge back problems and an exercise routine that could be shortened with more weight on her ankles (increase weight, reduce reps (and time)). Now I can tell her they were a gift (and they, too, were thrifted).
6. The lady I do companioning with at Hospice brought me a bag of her husband’s old socks – she is slowly dealing with all of his ‘stuff’ and the socks were stumping her, I suggested she bring them to me and I will drop them at our local homeless shelter. If they have a week’s worth of wear in them, someone on the streets will be grateful to have them. One thing off her list and into my car, which currently has two hiking backpacks from another buddy also destined for the shelter, except my Daughter is going to use one this summer for a major canoeing trip she is joining. She needs to pick the one she wants and then I can divest myself of the other, and the socks.
7. I’ll cancel Netflix for the summer – I’m not watching, and the kids have other options, and my 95 year old mom who was using it a lot is not longer cognitively able to find it on her devices. I could do with the decrease in expense for a few months. I already cancelled Prime although it won’t come into effect until September, and I have free Apple TV for another month that my daughter accesses. I don’t watch shows, and if I do want to I can buy a month on a service, rather than keeping the options open.
Hey Ecoteri,
Have you tried Kanopy through the library.
National Film Board also has an app, though I haven’t used it recently.
CBC Gem is awesome.
YouTube
Tubi
So many great options to experiment with over the summer.
@T, NFB has been showing up in my Instagram feed and I keep forgetting to go there!
As well as Gem, you are right!
Kanopy has been a bit disappointing with their offerings, but as I mentioned I am not really a movie watcher, so I won’t be noticing much at all with no Netflix.
I know nothing about Tubi, so guess that is research material.
I am annoyed with the ads on YouTube these days, and currently can’t // won’t justify paying a prescription fee for what is essentially FREE content that YouTube benefits from .
I second the previous comments. The wool rugs look clean & refreshed. I have washed wool rugs in the washer w/ cold water & Woolite. I hung up to air dry w/ good results. I realize some rugs have a thick backing & don’t fit in a washer. In the past I took one to the washateria to use a large washer with no agitator to launder the rug.
The second rug appears to be the Momeni Thompson Porter Area Rug, and I’m seeing that size listed at $179! Well done!
You’re right, thank you!
I have the same stain remover spray and I cannot say enough good things about it. It removed a thai iced tea stain from a white rug- I couldn’t believe my own eyes. With two cats who sometimes spill their wet food, I find myself using it often.