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How do I wash a sheepskin rug?
I am catsitting, and the cat peed on my fairly large, long-haired sheepskin rug. The wool is real, not imitated.
I put it in the washing machine on the wool-program (30 degrees Celsius) with some wool detergent.
Thankfully, the smell of cat pee went away, but now that the rug is dry, the “skin side” of it is very stiff.
How can I make it soft again, and should I have washed it differently?
I don't know how applicable to sheepskin this might be. I've used a mink oil paste on various natural skin-type materials, workshop aprons, boots, etc.
It has what I consider to be a pleasant odor akin to fresh leather, but it also does not wash out, as it waterproofs the surface. It causes stiff leather to become very supple.
When I reconditioned leather products (shoes, jackets), I cleaned them with alcohol, eventually applied some paint, and at the end I restored their softness with paraffin oil.
In your case, you would apply the said paraffin oil on the back of the product, so you would not grease the hairs. After you let the oil do its job for some time, you remove as much as you can with some dry cloth. Anything that remains will be gradually transferred to objects around it - which you want to avoid.
After a bit of research I got the advice to use a spray bottle and dampen the skin side of the rug, then stretch it while damp. I did this 2 times, with 30 minutes in between. After the second stretch, I rubbed the skin while still damp with a mild liquid hand soap. This worked wonders, and the rug ended up soft and clean :)
