Most carpets are simply ripe for attracting stains and messes. So, in this article I’m providing a few hints and tips to help you stay on top and get you ready for removing stains and messes from your carpet with ease.
The first question though:
Do you need a full carpet renovation?
Before spending hours cleaning your carpet. It’s worth asking yourself ‘do you need a full carpet and underlay renovation?’
If you do take the decision for a full renovation, then have a read of this article first – 4 features of Carpet Underlay you need to know when renovating your home.
If you just have a couple of stains and need to get rid of them, read on.
Red Wine Stains
Red wine is one of those stains that can occur at any point in time. Maybe you had a party with friends or maybe you spilt it during a Friday night dinner.
Either way, if you have a crème carpet, it can really show up. Even in dark carpets, you will still see the after-effects.
So, it’s a good idea to try your best to get rid of it
How to get rid of it
A commonly recommended method of removal is to use a mixture of soap, vinegar and water. As with most stains, it’s best to blotch the stained area so that you don’t rub it into other areas of the carpet.
Coffee Stains
A cup of morning Joe is a ritual in nearly all households. But what about when you go to lift your cup and something causes you to jolt it in the air.
There’s only one outcome – it goes everywhere. Sometimes that everywhere includes the carpet.
How to get rid of it
It’s also recommended to use a water-vinegar solution for removing coffee from your carpets. There are many other products on the commercial market too. These will claim to do the same job. Such as Vanish (in the UK) or Resolve (in the US).
Some websites suggest that if you’re not sure whether the vinegar will discolour the carpet, then it’s a good idea to do a test in one corner of the room that isn’t usually visible to the eye.
Pet hair & poop
It’s fairly well-known that if you have pets, their hair can get everywhere. It’s especially frustrating when it gets embedded in the carpet and just won’t come out.
Alongside that, there are some pets who feel it’s appropriate to do a wee or a poop right in the middle of the living room floor.
How to get rid of it
To get the hairs out, you could start with a good, strong vacuum cleaner. If that doesn’t work, try hiring a carpet cleaner which gets filled with soap and water and sucks dirt up at the same time.
To remove any poop stains, you should leave the soap water sitting on the carpet for a few minutes. Then do the usual blotch from the outside in.
Ink Stains
Kids love to play with ink and so there’s a high chance of it getting on the carpet. That’s because it can get very messy and if you leave your kids unaccompanied for even just 30 seconds, who knows how much ink will go into the carpet.
Sometimes ink isn’t just one blot either. It can be multiple small spray patches which make it more time consuming and require something much more precise to be able to get it out.
How to get rid of it
There are a few products that you could use to remove the ink. One being fingernail polish remover. However, alcohol rub or even hair spray have been quite popular stain removers and are sometimes recommended on the web too.