How to Clean Those Nasty Carpet Stains At Home

So something happened and your carpet is sitting there with a big fat stain. Be it a ketchup stain, red wine stain or something else. In this post I want to just go through some of the best ways you can get rid of these stains without having to go through an unsuccessful removal process. 

If you are like me you must have used a steam cleaner at some point to clean the carpet stain. After all we feel that steam cleaners are the best tools around to get rid of this mess but sometimes the stains are so stubborn that even after using steam cleaner the stain remains. There is also a possibility that you might have to purchase the steam cleaner or a better way would be to just rent it for cheap. 

Having kids and pets at home also, doesn't make our job easy. Sometimes I feel that cleaning mud stains, dog hair, dirt stains and wine stains is a life long affair and we have to become an expert on our own in this kind of cleaning. 

However, nothing beats the satisfaction of cleaning that stubborn stain out of our beloved carpets. To do this, there are a few things which are essential requirement, even if you get a steam cleaner on rent. 

These are:

1. A good brush

2. A Microfibre cloth or towel

3. A bucket ( This might seem a no brainer, but trust me this is the most important thing needed)

4. A natural cleaning ingredient 

You do not need any fancy tools for cleaning a carpet stain, a simple list above will help you. Sometimes there are some stubborn stains, which might need professional help but most of the stains if acted quickly can be removed in no time. 

The first thing to do as soon as your carpet gets stained is get a clean bucket of water along with a good brush. Use the towel to blot the stain to make sure that the stain doesn't spread around the surface of the carpet. 

For instance, if someone spilled a drink on the carpet, it might not be easy to go about cleaning right away but you can use the towel to blot that spot at that exact moment. Make sure to remove as much material as you can be it ketchup or wine or even dirt. 

The second step is to use a natural cleaning agent and spread it over the stain. Instead of using the products found in my local store, I prefer to use a natural and homemade solution but you can use either. 

For a homemade solution I use ingredients such as lemon, baking soda, salt or vinegar depending upon the stain. As we mentioned in our list above that you need a natural cleaning agent, one of the benefits of using these are that these are easily available in your kitchen too. So, even if you run out of these, you can always stock up your kitchen for some natural cleaning agents too.

Other benefit of using a natural cleaning agent is that these ingredients are neutral and not strong like most of these cleaners are. However, even if you are using a natural homemade cleaner, make sure to measure the quantity required else there is a possibility that you will harm your carpet more than cleaning it. 

One more thing about natural products is that I feel kind of helping the nature as these products do not do any damage to our environment and also do not harm the people and pets inside the home. I have used some products in the past which were so harmful that these lead to allergic reactions in my kids, so I started using natural products instead of chemical laced products. 

Now, that you have spread the right quantity of the product on the stain, start scrubbing that stain gently and thoroughly. Don't think that by applying more pressure you are helping in the stain removal. Instead, you will damage the carpet. So, scrub gently and continuously to see the stain getting removed. You can also use some warm water as this will clean the stain without leaving a spot.

This is the simple process you can follow if you want to clean stains from your carpet but as the doctors say prevention is better than cure. So, make sure you take extra care when moving around with a glass of wine. Keep your shoes outside or carry them inside, so as not to leave a stain and also, try to keep pets away from the carpet as much as possible. Because if you don't follow the precautions you will have a hard time cleaning that stubborn stain and instead of doing this again and again, it's better to have some precautions.