When holiday guests gather in your home to enjoy festive food and drink, there are bound to be a few accidental slops and splatters that could make your carpets a casualty of the celebration. Any number of foodstuffs and beverages can stain, distracting you from the party and straining your composure as host. Don’t lose your cool! Let us teach you how to treat all manner of stains so you can save your furnishings (and your friendships) from ruin.
By Donna Boyle Schwartz
Candle Drippings
Sometimes the warm glow, fragrance, and ambience of candles isn’t worth the waxy mess. Scrape up the drippings, lay down a paper towel, and run an iron set to low heat over the area. As the wax liquefies, the paper towel will absorb it. Continue until all the wax is absorbed.
Coffee
Coffee, an entertaining essential, can leave behind nasty stains. Once you’ve soaked up the spill with clean towels, rinse the area with lukewarm water and blot again; repeat until the towel comes away clean after blotting. Still see a stain? Try rinsing with a mixture of one cup of white vinegar and three cups of water until the discoloration disappears.
Coffee, an entertaining essential, can leave behind nasty stains. Once you’ve soaked up the spill with clean towels, rinse the area with lukewarm water and blot again; repeat until the towel comes away clean after blotting. Still see a stain? Try rinsing with a mixture of one cup of white vinegar and three cups of water until the discoloration disappears.
Cheese Dip
Cheesy dips can spell trouble when spilled. Blot the spot with a pad moistened with dry-cleaning solvent (like Guardsman or Dryel), and change the pad as the solvent picks up the stain. If some stain remains, use an enzyme presoaking solution—but not on carpet constructed of wool or silk fibers. When the stain is gone, flush thoroughly with warm water and allow your clean carpet to dry.
Gravy
Gravy and other butter- or oil-based sauces can be tricky to remove. Cover the spill with talcum powder, cornstarch, or baking soda, and leave for 10 to 20 minutes to absorb the oil. Lightly vacuum the powder, being careful not to smear the stain. Then moisten a sponge with rubbing alcohol and blot to remove the last traces.
Tomato-Based Sauce
Tomato-based dips like cocktail sauce or salsa can devastate light-colored carpets. Treat with a mixture of one cup of vinegar and three cups of water. Blot with clean towels, and repeat until the area is clean. If a stain remains, try adding a few drops of dishwashing detergent to the diluted vinegar. Always rinse with warm water.
Beer
Be careful when sharing holiday spirits! Beer can be problematic to clean up because it contains sugar. If the sugar is left behind in your carpet fibers, it will over time attract dirt and debris and evolve into a gray stain. Blot with clean towels, then saturate the area with a mixture of one tablespoon of dishwashing detergent and one quart of water. Rinse with warm water, then blot dry.
