In helping my senior mother with her life, I've had to tackle (1) a dirt (escaping from a vacuum cleaner) stain; (2) spilled coffee stains; and (3) blood stains on her otherwise lovely and pristine-looking carpet. In case you're wondering about the blood, it occurred as she absentmindedly scratched a white mole on her ankle. The injured mole bled a lot and she didn't even notice it, dripping blood on 3 areas of the rug as she returned to her chair.
An all-purpose stain remover from a dollar store didn't work.
Through trial and error (avoiding cleaners that would take the color out of the carpet), what got the stains out was a combination of the following ingredients:
Homemade Carpet Stain Remover
water-diluted ammonia in a spray bottle (50/50 is actually too strong. I use it as an all-purpose cleaner for household surfaces and now only pour about 1/3 ammonia to 2/3 water, still too much according to this.)
Dishwashing liquid
white vinegar
baking soda
tap water in a cup
a scrub brush
several paper towels
Directions:
1) Wet the stain with water-diluted ammonia.
2) Follow with drops of soap and undiluted white vinegar.
3) Pour baking soda on top of the wet mixture and let it fizzle. I use a scrub brush to work the mixture into the carpet. Toss some clean water on top if the paste is too dry.
5) Repeat the treatment if needed. When a stain is extra tough, drops of dishwashing detergent can be added to the effort. When the treatment is complete and dry you can vacuum over it.
We only needed one application. The stains are gone. What a welcome surprise!
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Wow, this is brilliant. I find the purchased carpet stain removers never work very well, so should get some ammonia and get going!
ReplyDeleteYes, give it a try, Trish. It worded for us on what I think are the toughest stains to remove: coffee and blood.
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