Carpets are a stylish way to cover a floor and they add a warm and cosy feel to a room as well as feeling snug underfoot. However, carpets can be a nightmare if you spill liquids on them and some stains can be impossible to get out.
Do not panic, with a little bit of cleaning know how, it is possible to get rid of these stubborn stains and below we explain how to remove stains from your carpet.
Remove coffee stains
It’s all too easy to accidentally kick a mug of coffee over and while it takes just a second to do, the resulting mess can stick around for years.
However, if you act quickly after you have spilled coffee on the carpet, the stain will come right out.
First, use a dry, clean towel to soak up the excess moisture. Keep changing the towel so you are not spreading the stain when it gets too wet.
Next, mix a little white vinegar with water and a bleach-free cleaning fluid and spray it onto the stain. Rinse and repeat a few times to see if the stain comes out.
Remove red wine stains
Red wine is another drink that is easily spilled, but it is possible to remove it.
First, blot up as much of the excess liquid as you can with a clean, dry towel as you would with a coffee stain.
Next, mix one spoon of white vinegar or white wine with one spoon of washing-up liquid and two mugs of lukewarm water. Use a sponge to apply this mixture to the stain and make sure you add a bit at a time and blot the excess moisture away before you add another bit of mixture. Repeat this until the stain is removed.
Remove tomato sauce stains
Tomato sauce may have a very different consistency to red wine, but you can get rid of it in much the same way. Gently remove as much sauce as you can with a towel, then blot the stain dry.
Use the same vinegar, washing-up liquid and warm water mixture to dab away at the stain until you have removed as much as you can. Leave the stain for 15 minutes, then use cold water to remove any remaining tomato sauce.
Remove chocolate stains
Chocolate is a stubborn stain because the chocolate tends to smudge into the carpet and make the stain worse when you try to clean it.
Before you even think about wetting this stain, scrape away as much chocolate as possible with a blunt knife.
Now you can scrub at it with water and cleaning fluid to remove the final stubborn bits of chocolate.
Remove blood stains
If you or a member of your family accidentally cut yourself on a knife or glass, a little blood can drip onto the carpet.
Obviously, tending to the wound is your immediate concern, but once you have that under control, you can act fast to start removing the bloodstain too.
Mix some cold water with washing-up liquid and place it in a spray bottle. The water must be cold because hot water will cause the blood to coagulate and make more of a mess.
Spray the mixture onto the bloodstain, and then blot the stain with a dry paper towel. Keep doing this until you have removed as much of the stain as possible.
If these treatments above do not completely remove a stain, you will still have minimized the damage so that a professional cleaner will be able to remove the rest of it for you.
By thinking and acting quickly, you have stopped that stain becoming impossible to remove and made sure your carpet will keep looking as good as new.
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Brian Hannah is a carpet cleaning specialist for an Office Cleaning company, he has a wealth of knowledge on the best ways to clean stains from carpets.