• Rotate your rug every year so it wears evenly. Remove dry dirt to prevent fibre wear.
• Keep your rug away from direct sunlight to avoid colour fade and fibre wear.
• On cut-pile rugs, use a vacuum with a rotating beater bar to loosen dirt. On loop-pile rugs, use a vacuum with suction to avoid damaging the loops.
• Use plastic guards under furniture legs and periodically move the furniture around to change the pressure points on your rug.
• Repair fringes and edges immediately to stop knots from unravelling.
• Do not have your rug steam cleaned. Take it to a specialist where the rug will be beaten to remove dirt, washed with mild shampoo and water, gently passed through a wringer and hung in a temperature-controlled room for fast drying.

For storage, roll the rug and consider adding mothballs. Avoid humid basements where moths, silverfish and carpet beetles can destroy your rug.