The vast majority of modern carpeting available today is specially treated to be very stain resistant, but stain resistant and stain proof are not the same thing. Accidents will always happen but when it comes to cleaning up accidental spills and getting stains out of a carpet how fast, and how you deal with the problem can make all the difference.
If liquid spills occur some people’s natural reaction is to start scrubbing away at the affected spot like a banshee with a whole roll of paper towel. This is not a good idea under any circumstances. Scrubbing can spread the stain and can also cause permanent carpet pile distortion. Instead liquid spills should be blotted up gently with a clean white cloth or plain paper towels, never the patterned or colored stuff.
If you did not react to a spill in time and have been left with a stubborn stain on your carpet commercial stain removers can be very helpful but they should be used with extreme caution. Before using any stain removal agent on your carpet perform a spot test on an inconspicuous area to make sure it will not damage the fibers or cause discoloration. Whatever it might say on the label not all stain removers are suitable for use on certain types of carpet.
To perform this spot test put a few drops of the stain removal agent onto the test area and press a clean white cloth over it for about ten seconds. Check both the cloth and the carpet itself for any tell tale color changes or other damage and if it all looks good you can then proceed.
When removing stains use the smallest amount of the removal agent you can and remember,blot don’t scrub. Once it looks like the stain remover has done its job rinse the whole area with clean cold water and blot it dry carefully, with yet another nice clean cloth or paper towel.
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