When it comes to cleaning stains out of carpets, even fresh ones, nothing tends to cause a panic like wine, especially red vintages that easily show up on light-coloured carpets.
Wine is especially troublesome if you’re having a party at your place of business, and it’s an evening soiree that inevitably involves adult beverages. You don’t want a leftover stain on your carpet to make your office look unkempt. This is especially true if you run a business from your home.
So, until you can call in professionals to help you deal with the problem, here are some tips to help you get the majority of the stain out.
1) Act Fast & Blot. Make time your favourite stain removal tool and grab a dishrag or paper towel as soon after the spill as possible. Once you’ve grabbed either the rag or paper towel, then blot out the stain, but don’t rub side to side. Rubbing will only spread out the stain further, setting it into the fibres, and you’ll have a bigger problem on your hands than when you started.
2) Work From the Outside. Just like you don’t want to rub the stain and make it bigger, you’ll want to work on the stain from the outside and go inward. It keeps the stain contained in that small area, making that spot much easier to clean.
3) Add Water, Keep Blotting. Eventually, it will be difficult to remove all of the stain, even though you’ve been blotting the spot over and over since the spill. What you’ll want to do is add water to the stain to keep diluting the colour spot so you can continue blotting.
4) Try Carpet Cleaner. Now that you’ve blotted the carpet as much as possible, grab some carpet cleaner. First, spray the spot, then let it sit for a while, and then rub or rinse clean. Here’s a caveat though: be wary of oxygen-activated carpet cleaners. They have a way of discolouring the carpet fibres.
5) Use Salt. If you go after the stain while it’s wet, pour a bit of salt over the wet spot to absorb it. If the spot is dry, then pour water over the spot, followed by a pile of salt that will absorb the wet wine stain.
Don’t let a fear of spilling wine keep you from serving it at business lunches or dinners. If wine spills, make time your ally by acting quickly to clean up the stain. Thus you’ll help out the cleaning people and you’ll have a clean carpet again by the time they leave.
