Help for Holiday Stains
By ShelterPop Staff (Subscribe to ShelterPop Staff's posts)
Oct 22nd 2009 4:32PM
When a glass goes over, and cabernet is coloring your carpet crimson, now's the time to grab some paper towels or absorbent cloths and blot up as much of the liquid as you can. Stand on the towels, to sop up what's deep down in the fibers. Dampen a clean cloth with plain water and quickly sponge the stain, or keep a spray bottle handy that's already filled with cool water and spritz the splotch. Blot up as much as you can with dry towels. Place a clean, dry towel over the stain to keep people from walking on it, and go back to your guests. To finish it later, mix up a solution of 1 tablespoon plain hand dishwashing liquid (without any added ingredients), 1 tablespoon white vinegar, and 2 cups warm water. Dampen a cloth with the mixture and apply it to the stain a little bit at a time (too much and it'll be hard to rinse out), blotting with a dry cloth as the stain dissolves. When the stain is gone, rinse well with a clean, damp cloth and blot dry. Pile on a clean stack of paper towels, place a heavy vase or pot on top, and leave it overnight. The next day, toss the paper towel (along with any remaining stain it's absorbed) and fluff the carpet.
Help for Holiday Stains
Red wine
When a glass goes over, and cabernet is coloring your carpet crimson, now's the time to grab some paper towels or absorbent cloths and blot up as much of the liquid as you can. Stand on the towels, to sop up what's deep down in the fibers. Dampen a clean cloth with plain water and quickly sponge the stain, or keep a spray bottle handy that's already filled with cool water and spritz the splotch. Blot up as much as you can with dry towels. Place a clean, dry towel over the stain to keep people from walking on it, and go back to your guests. To finish it later, mix up a solution of 1 tablespoon plain hand dishwashing liquid (without any added ingredients), 1 tablespoon white vinegar, and 2 cups warm water. Dampen a cloth with the mixture and apply it to the stain a little bit at a time (too much and it'll be hard to rinse out), blotting with a dry cloth as the stain dissolves. When the stain is gone, rinse well with a clean, damp cloth and blot dry. Pile on a clean stack of paper towels, place a heavy vase or pot on top, and leave it overnight. The next day, toss the paper towel (along with any remaining stain it's absorbed) and fluff the carpet.
Gravy
If the turkey gravy's gone wild on your tablecloth, all you can really do during dinner is to scrape up any excess, to keep it from making a bigger stain. After the guests have gone, apply your favorite laundry prewash product and soak the linen overnight in the washing machine in warm water with some enzyme detergent and all-fabric bleach added. The next morning, drain the washer and start a new cycle using the hottest water and type of bleach that's safe for the fabric. Check for any remaining stain before putting the cloth in the dryer.
Candle wax
When your supposedly dripless candles are anything but, well, dripless, don't worry if a little melted wax dribbles onto the tablecloth during dinner; you can handle it later. Actually, later is better, because wax is easier to remove once it dries. Just blow out the candle and keep eating. To remove it, gently scrape off as much of the hardened wax as possible. If it's a colored candle, sponge the stain with a solvent-based cleaning fluid, like Afta Dry Cleaning Solvent and Spot Remover, to help lighten the color. Place the stain between clean paper towels and press with a warm iron to melt and transfer the wax to the paper towels. Rotate or replace the paper towels as they absorb the wax. Repeat until no more wax is released. Rub a little liquid laundry detergent into the stain and wash in warm or hot water, adding chlorine or oxygen bleach, whichever is safe for the fabric.
Coffee
Your brew may be good to the last drop, but when it drops on your sofa cushion, that's not so good. Just dab a little water on the stain and let it go, for now. If your fabric tends to water spot, like silk, just leave the coffee stain alone. Later, for fabrics that can safely be cleaned with water, sponge the stain with a clean cloth dipped in a solution of 1 tablespoon plain hand dishwashing liquid mixed into 2 cups cool water. Blot with a dry cloth and repeat until the stain disappears. Rinse and blot dry. If the chair fabric can't be cleaned with water or if milk was in the coffee, sponge the stain with a dry-cleaning solvent until the stain disappears and blot dry.
Cranberry sauce
Whole berry or jellied, it's bound to land on your tablecloth today, so mid-meal, just scrape up the excess with a spoon and sponge on a little cool water. When the party's over, mix 1 tablespoon white vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon liquid laundry detergent into 1 quart cool water. Soak the stain for about 15 minutes. Rinse and sponge with rubbing alcohol, if the stain remains. Finally, launder it as usual with a little bleach added, if possible.
Butter
If your warm biscuits are dripping butter on your tablecloth every time you take a bite, reach for the salt. No, not to spice things up, but to sop them up. Salt can help absorb the grease while it's still fresh and keep it from soaking further into the fabric. Artificial sweetener also does the trick. The next day, pretreat the stain with your usual laundry spot remover or rub a little liquid detergent into the stain and launder it in the hottest water that's safe for the fabric.
Sweet Potato or Pumpkin Pie
Serving dessert in the living room is a fun idea, until a piece of pie tumbles onto the carpet. For now, just pick up the pieces and pull as much of the pie as you can out of the carpet fibers with a damp cloth. Tomorrow, sponge the stain with a cloth dipped into a solution of 1 tablespoon plain dishwashing liquid and 2 cups warm water. Rinse and blot dry. If a telltale stain remains, mix 1 tablespoon nonsudsy ammonia (caution: don't use ammonia on silk or wool carpets) into 2 cups warm water. Sponge and blot the stain until it disappears. Rinse and blot dry.
Everything else:
Get fast fixes for all of your holiday stains, including pine resin, lipstick and fruit punch, in Goodhousekeeping.com's new and improved StainBuster.
Reprinted with Permission of Hearst Communications, Inc. Originally Published: Help for Holiday Stains
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ellen Shelly 11-04-2009 @ 9:15AM
A better method for red wine spills is to cover the area with salt and let sit until the red wine is absorbed then vacuum. Try it.
Reply
Timmy 11-04-2009 @ 2:11PM
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Kevin 11-04-2009 @ 9:55AM
You know the best thing for "any" stain that i've ever come across is "Spot Shot".This stuff takes out "EVERYTHING".No matter the stain,new or old,the stain comes out...I will never buy,or make anything else.
Reply
Troy 11-04-2009 @ 10:26AM
This stain remedy is a little misleading.
First off, the red wine is acidic and has a negative charge like all acids. The nylon fiber is basic or alkaline and has a positive charge. The positive and negative are going to attract and the wine is going to "dye" the carpet just like acids have been dying basics since the beginning of time. The only possible chance this carpet has is if the manufacturer put a "topical" stain treatment on this when it was made. Most manufacturers spray on a "negative charged resin", this topical treatment provides a "negative" or acid property to the carpet that will resist the dying by an acid. It is like two negative ends of a magnet pushing against each other. This negative resin has many brand names, but the most popular is stain master. This resin is only temporary and washes off or wears off over time. This is why carpet doesn't last forever and eventually stains.... Also putting liquid detergent on a carpet is the worse thing you could do. It is almost impossible to remove by hand without gallons of water or a professional cleaning machine. Even then the area that was in contact with the detergent will attract dirt and dust and will be soiled. Excess soap in carpet is the number 1 reason that carpet uglies out and gets soiled.
If your carpet comes in contact with Red Wine, you should pour water onto the carpet and blot it out with a towel. Keep pouring the water and keep blotting. You might also want to get a glass of white wine and pour it over the red stain. Keep blotting.
At the end of the day, it is a chemical process and not much you can do but try and reduce the amount of red dye that dyes the carpet. Whatever you do, do not apply steam or heat, this will only set the dye faster......
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tgd10 11-04-2009 @ 10:30AM
I spilled red wine on my nice beige carpet a couple of years ago, and Oxyclean removed all traces of it instantly. It was unbelievable. I haven't tried these other methods, but I can't believe they work any better or faster.
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Paul Hoh 11-04-2009 @ 12:28PM
I heard that club soda works well on red wine stains. Anybody tried that?
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NATMAN 11-04-2009 @ 12:43PM
Wow, all this time I thought red wine was made from grapes. Modern technology amazes me. Now we get red wine from carpets.
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Ed Guelld 11-04-2009 @ 3:47PM
Another cute trick is to pour vodka on it and then follow all the other procedures of absorbing and such. White wine, like the vinegar in the article states, works but isn't nearly as good or dramatic!
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davide463 11-04-2009 @ 4:02PM
For red wine spills, use white wine on absorbant kitchen towels. Works every time
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