Cleaning, even regular domestic cleaning, can be a daunting task. When it comes to emergency procedures such as removing red wine spills and stains from your favorite carpet, it can be a nightmare to deal with. Red wine and carpets don’t mix together well in general, and old wine stains are very hard to get rid of. That doesn’t mean they are impossible to deal with.
No place to worry
The good news is that spilling a cup of red wine on your beautiful carpet or area rug doesn’t mean it is permanently ruined. There are techniques for removing red wine the moment the spill happens, as well as if it is already a dried red wine stain. So no matter whether you need to treat fresh stains, or you’ve noticed the spill on your beige carpet several days after the event, there is a solution that will work for you. The cleaning process takes just a few ingredients and simple tools. It requires a little time and effort, but they would be worth it if you manage to get red wine stains you don’t want to be permanently present on your carpets.
What takes out red wine stains from carpets
A few common household items and store bought chemical cleaning products work very well in removing a red wine stain. Some of those include:
- White vinegar
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Hydrogen peroxide
- Club soda
- Dishwasher detergent
- Purpose-made carpet stain removers
The thing is, if you prefer to avoid using chemical cleaning products that may pose a threat to yours and your family’s health, you can. The homemade remedies such as carbonated water produce very good results in battling wine stains, especially if you act fast.
Homemade remedies to get red wine off your carpet
The process of removing a red wine stained carpet typically consists of four steps:
- Blot
- Rinse
- Spot treat
- Rinse once more
The right way to blot a stain
Clean towels, including paper towels, as well as clean washcloths, should always be used to blot the spill. The trick here is to act quickly. Blot the stain as soon as you notice it. Rubbing the wine stain is a bad idea. It will cause the liquid to spread into unaffected areas of the rug. That means that you need to blot from the outside edges of the stain towards the center, so that you can avoid spreading it. You should continue to blot as many times as necessary, until all excess liquid is removed from the carpet. This blotting technique is essential for successfully getting wine out of carpet.
Use Cold Water
It is common wisdom that hot water works better for dissolving and removing stains. That is not the case with wine stains. The hot water will actually cause the stain to settle deep into the carpet fibers and make it very hard to remove.
You should fill your spray bottle with cold water instead of warm water and use it to rinse the stain. If you’ve caught the spill early enough, you might be lucky and have the stain come off with just a few repeated blotting and rinsing sessions.
Spot treating is the key to removing stubborn wine stains from carpets
Commercial carpet spays may be very powerful, but if you opt for them you need to make sure that you buy one that doesn’t contain bleach or ammonium in them. Not only will they damage your carpets if you overdo them, but these types of carpet sprays pose considerable health treats.
There are a couple of homemade options that will work just as well as any commercial green carpet cleaning product. Try a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and dish soap in a 3 to 1 solution. Just spray the mixture over the spot and leave it for twenty minutes. Any remaining wine should be broken down and become easier to remove by that time. After the twenty minutes pass, blot the spot once again using a white towel to remove the wine and the dishwashing liquid.
A mix of dish soap, white vinegar and water, or even club soda, works perfectly well for removing white wine and red white stubborn stains as well. The dishwasher liquid and vinegar are mixed in a 3 to 1 ratio in two cups of water, then placed in a spray bottle. Make a damp cloth using that mixture and treat the stain with a gentle dab. Once you do that, just use a clean cloth to remove the cleaner along with a part of all of the remaining stain. You can repeat the process as often as necessary. Jut remove the cleaning solution each time, otherwise your carpets may become discolored.
Last resort for removing red wine stains
If all else fails, you can always count on the assistance of professional cleaners such as us at Get It Cleaned. When you hire someone like our trained, knowledgeable pros for the job of removing red wine stains from your carpets, you save a lot of time and effort. The cleaners will come with the necessary equipment, as well as cleaning products. What is even more important – they will have the knowledge and skills to remedy the situation much faster and more successfully than you will probably ever be able to.
