Stain Be Gone!

It has been a while since a blog post and I apologize.  My house was hit with really bad colds and took days to get over.  I think I was hit the hardest...isn't that always the case?  The house seems to unfold when the "Mom" is not in tip top shape.  My husband did rise to the challenge and helped with chores around the house so I could rest and nap.  He even did a birthday party run with our oldest.  I am over the cold now (hopefully do not get another one) and hoping that spring will bring sunshine, warmth and no more sickness.

What I wanted to share today was a method for cleaning stained carpets.  In the tv room,  I have an area rug that is situated in the middle of the room between the couch and the chairs.  The tv room is a high traffic area for playing, visiting, relaxing, cups of tea and coffee, and small children snacks.  The kids always manage to spill something on the rug.   The rug is lighted colored (which is probably a mistake) and makes the room feel warmer.  The light gray color works well with our color scheme in the tv room and also provides a nice contrast to the dark wood floors.  Within the last month I noticed that this rug was in need of some TLC.  I did not want to throw the towel in and go purchase a new one.  This rug is not that old and has plenty of life left.  I decided to research carpet cleaning and turned to Pinterest.  

 

 

 

On Pinterest I found this carpet stain cleaning link and decided to give it a try.  As I read the information from the website, I realized I had to improvise a little bit.  Here is the process I used to free my carpet of stains.  I am a true believer and plan to continue using this method on the carpets on the second level.

 

Locate the stains you want to tackle.  As you can see from the photo, there are two.  Pay attention to stain number one.  You need a white towel, a hot iron set on a medium setting (I was afraid of the iron being too hot and melting the carpet fibers) and ammonia (I used glass cleaner because I did not have plain ammonia). I first started out by vacuuming the carpet and cleaning it of any debris.

 

Saturate the stain with the ammonia and let sit for a few seconds.  

 

Place the white towel over the stain and iron the towel.  Keep the iron continuously moving, do not let it sit on the towel or it will burn!  I counted to ten while moving the iron back and forth and side to side.

 

 

Stop ironing and lift the towel off the carpet.  The stain is magically transferred to the towel and out of the carpet.  

After testing this method out on stain number one, I was hooked!  I ended up spot cleaning all the stains on the carpet.  After the stains were gone and the wet spots had air dried, I then vacuumed the carpet again.  The carpet looked brand new.  When my husband came home, he was totally shocked!  This method ended up being fairly quick and easy.  I love quick and easy, especially with young kids in the house!

Here is to you and your stain free carpets!