Growing up with plush carpet, we used to take an unusual joy in vacuuming the carpet as a kid (yeah, it perplexed our mom to find herself with a son who actually liked to vacuum), especially because the results left the carpet with a clean manicured style design. Here's an interesting product that allows you to not only rake clean deeply embedded dirt/particles from the carpet before you vacuum, but also an opportunity to groom your carpet with designs...
The $9.99 Carpet Rake is available from the wonderfully-horribly-addictive Improvements Catalog. Maybe we'll arrange for a surprise visit while mom is gone, and vacuum and rake her rug with a Japanese rock garden design without telling her with one these...
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I remember these from the 70's for the deep-pile shag rugs...
I keep thinking about the sound this would make and I shudder every time... ick.
I have this very same carpet rake and it's awesome! It catches all kinds of stuff before the vacuum, it's prevented coins and stray earrings from getting sucked up, and saves on bags.
Weird.
I know what you mean about the Home Improvements catalog - it totally falls into the embarrassing, guilty-pleasures category. Completely cheesy but also full of great ideas.
You could make crop circles in your living room every night and freak out your husband.
Neat! While it might seem useless to some, I have cats that seem to embed their fur into the carpet, so I think it would be great for me. Vacuums don't pick it all up.
... And yes, like nazrd, I would want to draw crop circles in my carpet.
Oh Gregory, your posts are usually so sensible!! I pity the person who has the time or energy (or Meth addiction) to want to groom designs into their carpet...
We have a fine-fibered shag rug which is getting knotty is spots - like in front of the sofa. I wonder if this would be useful for keeping it groomed?
I use one for my back hair.
Oh. Man. A way to clean up all the hair I shed without dragging out the vacuum 4-5 times a week? Sign me up!
'Shag raking' was one of my first chores as a small child. Note to any parents who may want to conscript three-year-olds to do this: shorten the handle and it's actually kinda fun.