5 Tricks for Removing Stains from Your Carpet

*This is a collaborative post.

Carpet stains can be highly frustrating to deal with and are notoriously hard to remove. In addition, they can often be highly damaging to the aesthetic of your home. It’s therefore always a good idea to have a few ideas up your sleeves for dealing with tricky stains. Here are a few tips for removing them from your carpet. 

Try a Homemade Detergent Solution Initially 

For many lighter and shallower stains, you may find that a simple homemade stain solution can easily remove them. Applying a bottle of warm water combined with a ¼ teaspoon of dishwashing liquid is often enough to get rid of less stubborn stains. Once you have left the solution on the stain for several minutes, you can then blot the area with an absorbent cloth. One important thing to remember when doing this is to not get the stain overly wet, as this can cause additional damage to the carpet.

Use Baking Soda to Brighten Your Carpet 

Dirt and stains can not only make your carpet look worse in the moment, but over time, they can make your floors look tired and dull. For a natural approach that is easy on your carpets, try sprinkling baking soda on problem areas. After leaving the baking soda for approximately 15 to 30 minutes, you can then vacuum clean the area. This can significantly brighten the look of your carpets, and also remove any milder stains. 

Hire a Steam Cleaner for More Worn Carpets

If your carpets are particularly worn down and haven’t been fully cleaned in several years, you might want to invest in a steam cleaner to truly remove all stains. Many outlets offer rental services for steam cleaners if you want to do this yourself, or alternately, you can purchase residential carpet cleaning services from a professional cleaning company. The added benefit of this approach is that cleaning services have additional tools at their disposal to remove even the deepest stains.

Always Blot Instead of Wiping Stains

An important thing to remember when removing stains is not to wipe the problem area using a cloth. This is because doing so can actually spread the stain and leave it further impacted into the carpet. Blotting a stain instead can put less pressure on the carpet and lift out the stain gently.

Use Stronger Solutions for Tough Stains

If you find that a detergent solution is not sufficient for removing the stains on your carpet, there are a number of different alternative solutions you can use which are more powerful. If you’re still looking for a homemade solution, you can add a tablespoon of vinegar to the solution of washing-up liquid and water. This solution is particularly effective for breaking down coffee and grease stains. Commercial carpet cleaners, meanwhile, are more versatile but can be too harsh for certain carpets. It’s therefore important that, whatever you use, you test on a small patch of your carpet before applying it.