Carpet Spot Cleaning Tips
Carpet Spot Cleaning – Cleaning Tips for Removing Small Carpet Stains
There is nothing worse than having guests and oops, they spill a glass of red wine over your carpet. Dilemma, do you rush quickly and stop it soaking in and look like a cleaning freak or do you casually say oh, don’t worry, I’ll sort it out tomorrow? The best advice for carpet spot cleaning is get to the stain immediately as you can often reduce a great deal of damage. Going back to the red wine story, I had to laugh one day at a social gathering when one of the guests spilled a glass of red wine, the host, luckily a good friend of mine grabbed my glass of white wine and threw it on the stain! We all looked dumbfounded, and she told us that white wine neutralizes red wine. Well I think she should have read this article, it will dilute the red wine but it won’t get rid of it.
I hope you can remember these carpet spot cleaning tips for when little accidents happen in your home.
Black Coffee – spray with a soda siphon or pour soda water on the stain, blot excess off. Then shampoo with a dry carpet foam.
Blood – cover with cold water, blot dry. rinse as many times as necessary blotting after each rinse.
Burn – if the burn is on a pale carpet you can use a combination of 1 part hydrogen peroxide to 10 parts water and gently dab this over the burn to remove/clean the stain.
Candle Wax – put a brown paper bag or brown paper over the area and use a hot iron (no steam) to press the bag over the area. This should melt the wax and it will be absorbed into the paper, you can use paper towels but be careful not to singe the carpet. Keep doing this until you have removed all the wax. If the wax was colored, then dab methylated spirits on it until the color stain is removed.
Cream, Ice Cream or Milk Products – put a tiny amount of biodegradable liquid detergent on the area, work in gently, rinse with cold water. Alternatively you can sponge over the stain with a combination of 1 liter of warm water with 1 teaspoon of biodegradable liquid detergent and 1 teaspoon of white vinegar. Ensure that you blot up all the excess water and do not rub the carpet.
Faeces – (useful for those with pets or children!) Remove deposit. sponge area with warm water, then spay with a soda siphon or use soda water. Disinfect and shampoo.
Fruit Juice – Use mild biodegradable detergent and water to blot the juice stain with a cloth. Shampoo if necessary.
Paint (for all you DIY’ers) – Paint cannot be removed once it is dry so get it quick. Acrylic paint, sponge out with biodegradable detergent, and then dab with mentholated spirits. Enamel, sponge out with mineral turpentine or mentholated spirits.
Mud – leave it to dry then brush it out and vacuum it up. If a stain remains, dab with mentholated spirits then liquid detergent solution, then rinse. Repeat until stain is removed.
Urine – sponge immediately with cold water, blot with equal parts of white vinegar and water. Rinse then blot dry, shampoo if necessary.
Vomit – scrape up deposit. Sponge using a combination of 1 liter of warm water containing 1 teaspoon of white vinegar and 1 teaspoon biodegradable detergent.
Red Wine – pour salt over stain, you need quite a lot as it will soak up the stain, then leave it overnight and vacuum. Shampoo if necessary.
White Wine – sponge over the stain with a combination of 1 liter of warm water with 1 teaspoon of biodegradable liquid detergent and 1 teaspoon of white vinegar. Ensure that you blot up all the excess water and do not rub the carpet.
Written by Lee Brown
