Thursday, August 5, 2010

Who spilled red punch on the carpet?!

Yes, that was my reaction when I found a big red spot on the carpet. The light beige carpet. Sigh!
Hubby said, "I told you about that earlier on the phone." Yes, he had mentioned that the cats were running and Mini had lept over the ottomon and knocked over his drink.

Disclaimer: This is not our cat, but it is jumping.


He did not mention that it was a RED drink and that he had not managed to get it all up. And that it was in 2 places, since it has spilled on both sides of the ottoman. When I saw it, I figured I would just be living with that big RED stain, since it had dried.

On Saturday, I decided to try to do something about it, so while Hubby and I were running errands, I picked up a can of foam carpet cleaner and a spray bottle of Resolve. When we got home, I emptied the entire can of foam cleaner on those 2 stains. Yes, the can is supposed to clean an entire room.

I let it dry.

I vaccuumed it up.

The stain was the same.

Ugh.

So, next, I got on the floor with the Resolve and a rag and started spraying and scrubbing.

Nothing.

Next, I mixed up some Oxy Clean and warm water and started scrubbing. After all, Oxy Clean removes anything from anything. Right?

Not RED punch.

Then I gave up and watched a movie. Later, after Hubby commented that the stain looked darker than it had. Arrrrgghhh! I decided that we would have to go buy a big rug to cover up the stains. Then I got on-line and started looking around and here is the recommendation that I found to remove red stains from carpet.

Mix a few drops of Dawn dish washing liquid in water. (The recommendations varied on amounts, so I used about 3 cups of water.)

Wet a towel and wring out. (I used wash clothes as they were easier to wring out.)

Lay the cloth on the carpet over stain and place hot clothes iron on the cloth. Let sit for 15 minutes. The stain should wick into the cloth.

Rinse cloth and repeat.

I decided to try this. I have an iron. I have Dawn. And Hubby has a box of old rags. At first, I could not leave myself to leave the iron in one place for 15 minutes. Well. I don't think I ever left it for that long. But the longer it set, the more stain came up.

Yes, my friends. This worked!! It took several hours of wringing out and moving the iron, but it was worth it!! I can still see a hint of the stains, but Hubby says he can't. I figure I can spend some time and go over the areas again at some point.

BUT this tip was FREE and it WORKED!

4 comments:

Annie Jones said...

I'm kind of surprised the OxyClean didn't work; I've seen it do some amazing things.

Dawn is always one of my go-to cleaners. Also, a product called Greased Lightning has always worked well for us for all kinds of stains in clothing and carpeting.

Glad your freebie tip worked!

Sonya Ann said...

Thank you for sharing!!!! I love tips like this, you made my day!

Frances said...

Hi, Annie Jones. We use oxy clean a lot and it removes a lot, but it didn't work on the red.

Frances said...

You are so welcome, SonyAnn. I hope you never need this tip.