Carpet Stains - Tips and Tricks

From common household products to industrial solvents, figuring out what to do after a spill can be nerve-wracking.  Here is a primer of oft-sited tips and tricks for some of the most common stains.

Gum

Many people swear by peanut butter (creamy, I assume) to get gum out of your carpet fibers.  While this may work to get rid of the gum, there is a chance it will be replaced by a peanut butter stain.  Another one to try is lighter fluid or WD-40.  These work to dissolve the gum and they don't seem to leave much residue.

Grease

This may seem like a bad one, but the solution is one of the easiest.  Simply blot away as much as you can with a paper towel, then sprinkle the affected area with baking soda and leave overnight.  The baking soda will absorb the grease and in the morning you can vacuum it right up.

Coffee and chocolate

Blot with cool water.  Then, dampen a paper towel with a pre-made mixture of one and a half teaspoons of mild, non-bleach laundry detergent and one cup of lukewarm water.  Blot the stain.  Repeat until no discoloration is visible on the paper towel.  Mix together two tablespoons of ammonia with one cup of warm water.  Rinse the affected area, cover with a dry paper towel and vacuum in a few hours or the next day.

The dreaded red wine

The best solution to a red wine spill seems to be not too different than the previous stains.  The one difference is in the first step.  With a wine stain, you want to rinse the area as soon as possible with club soda or 7-Up, blot, and then move on to the ammonia solution.  Continue as described for coffee.

Blood

Remove as much as you can by blotting with a plain paper towel, then saturate the area with your ammonia mixture (described above, though for blood all solutions should be cool).  Some people recommend using a spray bottle to avoid spreading the stain.  Blot away excess liquid.  Dab or spray on your detergent mixture, then rinse with clean water and blot dry.  Spray on clean water one more time.  At this point, some prefer to blot dry again and others cover the area with a wad of paper towels, cover them with a weight, and leave overnight.  Of course before doing any of this, you may want to figure out who's bleeding all over the joint.

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