We’ve all been there: an accidental slip of the hand or trip of the foot can leave our carpets soaked in anything from curry and wine to hair dye and, let’s face it, pet poo.
Luckily for most carpet stains, there’s usually a fairly simple remedy which will have your home looking fresh again in no time at all.
Of course, we all know the white wine on the red wine stain trick, so we’re bringing you three carpet cleaning hacks that you may not have heard of to subdue your panic next time there’s a spillage.
Dark liquids
If you have an ominous dark liquid stain lurking on your carpet, perhaps a coffee stain, you can get rid of in just a few minutes with this simple solution. Mix together a glass of one part glass cleaner (such as this glass cleaner from Mr. Muscle) and two parts water.
After coating the stain with your glass cleaner solution, lay an old t-shirt – or any absorbent fabric that you don’t need to use again – on top and iron it. The heat from the iron should lift the stain directly onto the t-shirt, leaving your carpet stain-free.
Chewing gum
Getting chewing gum stuck in your carpet is a nightmare and you’ll know it well if you have kids. If you find yourself in this situation, don’t fret too much because chewing gum can be one of the easiest blemishes to remove from your carpet if you know how.
We spoke to carpet cleaning experts Cleaner Cleaner who said: “It’s really simple to get chewing gum out of your carpet with this one really easy trick. All you need to do is hold an ice cube onto the affected area for a few minutes until the chewing gum has frozen.”
“Once the gum is frozen, use a butter knife (or something of a similar ilk which won’t damage your carpet) to scrape it off. This trick isn’t just useful for carpets though, you can also use it to get chewing gum out of clothes, hair, or more or less anything.”
Nail varnish
If you’ve managed to get a nail varnish stain on your carpet, it may look unsightly but you can actually remove it really easily with a butter knife and few dabs of rubbing alcohol. A lot of people get nervous about using rubbing alcohol on their carpets as they fear it will remove the colour, but most rubbing alcohols aren’t strong enough to do that to a carpet.
Scrape the dried nail varnish off the carpet gently with a butter knife and dab some rubbing alcohol onto whatever is left – just be careful not to rub the stain as that could cause it to spread or go deeper into the carpet.
If your carpet stain has made you feel like you’re having a bad day, have a look at this gallery of messy disasters created by children to help you feel better.
