The moment you discover a stain on the carpet, especially if it’s a new carpet, your heart can sink. It’s frustrating and it can also cause panic.
There are some important steps you should take, though, the moment you notice a stain on the carpet. Not only will this help you avoid making some serious mistakes, it can also help you remove those carpet stains, depending on the material that caused the stain, of course.
Step #1: Avoid panic.
When you’ve invested thousands of dollars in new carpeting throughout your home and your child, spouse, or someone else just didn’t listen to you and decided to bring their Italian pasta and sauce dinner into the family room, dropping a ravioli on the carpet, you can certainly panic.
You have every right to be upset, but it’s during those panicky moments when most people make the biggest mistake. If you panic, you’ll have a tendency to try and scrub the stain out, but what you’re actually going to do is push it deeper and deeper into the carpet pile.
Try to remain calm, collect any material, such as the ravioli, up and then get some warm water, a mild detergent, and some paper towels.
Step #2: Wet the area with the warm water and soap.
Pour warm soapy water over the area before you try to scrub the stain. This may spread the stain a little bit, but it’s also going to dilute it, making it easier for you to get it up with those paper towels you grabbed.
Step #3: Blot.
Using the paper towels, blot the stain. It’s important that you don’t scrub back and forth. It’s more time-consuming to blot, but much more effective at getting at least almost all of the staining material out of the carpet. It will also avoid spreading it deeper down into the carpet pile.
If you truly value your carpeting, even if it appears as though you got the entire stain up, it’s a good idea to call a professional carpet cleaning service to your home and at least clean the affected area, if not all of the carpeting, which you should have done at least once a year, anyway.
