Girls’ night usually calls for a bottle (or 3) of wine, so I picked up a tasty bottle of Australian Shiraz (Wynns Coonawarra, in case you’re wondering) and we all met at my place.
In no time at all, our stories and arms were all over the place and so was the wine.
The horror! It looked like someone killed a moose on my beautiful Icelandic Caress carpet!
Thankfully we were on the ball. We even all had our own stain fighting recipe, but …which one is the best? (Here's a link to our Carpet Care and Maintenance page)
Turns out, there are many ways to clean a red wine stain. Here are a few of the ways to get out those crazy-bad stains.
The Salt Method:
- Blot to absorb as much of the wine as possible.
- Pour a LOT of salt on the stain.
- Wait a while (hours) to let the powers of osmosis draw the liquid into the salt.
- If you can still see the stain, repeat steps 2 and 3.
The Dish Detergent and Hydrogen Peroxide Method (for lighter carpets because hydrogen peroxide is a bleaching agent):
- Blot up the excess liquid.
- Make a mixture of liquid dish soap, hydrogen peroxide, and water (try 1tbsp each in a cup of cold water). You can use vinegar instead of peroxide if it’s handy.
- Then soak a clean cloth in the mixture and dab at the stain with it until you’ve covered the entire stain.
- Let the stain rest while the mixture gets absorbed into the carpet.
- Spritz with cold water.
- Blot with a clean, dry towel.
- Use a cloth soaked with warm water to soak up the soapy residue.
- Blot dry with another clean, dry towel.
The White Wine Method:
- While I acknowledge that this method exists, it just seems like some sort of voodoo witchcraft to me. And, come on, I would never recommend wasting wine.
Honestly, just keep it simple: blot. If the stain is still there when it’s dry, add a bit of water and keep blotting.
These methods work on coffee, pop, and juice too.
Of course, your carpet’s manufacturer may have specific stain-removal instructions. Here’s an awesome resource from Mohawk Flooring.
Cheers