December Blog Challenge… Carpet Stains

I've wanting to try this for over a year. I didn't own an iron and one thing led to another... Time just zooms by.

We have two dogs, two cats, plus a number of guest critters throughout this house. Add in the fact that I am a 5 yr old and we are never going to ever get this carpet replaced. I steam clean with the carpet cleaner and try to keep up on it, but stains happen!

That you need for this is a wet white towel (has to be white or your carpet might change color), a spray bottle filled with half ammonia and half water, an iron, and of course a stain!



This is a stain that's been here for about 5 months. I've used the carpet cleaner on it, the steam cleaner, half a dozen other chemicals and it just is happy to stay here.





The first thing you do is to soak with with the ammonia and water solution



Next you cover it with the wet white towel. I just bought my towel from the dollar store for $3.00.



Then you let it sit for a few minutes

and then a few more minutes

After about 5 minutes I turned the iron on as hot as it would go. The iron was also a dollar store purchase for $10.00.



After the iron is heated up you place it on the towel over the stain. You want to make sure you don't leave it in one spot for too long since it will burn the towel. I kept mine in the same place for abotu 15-20 second each time.

After you iron the stain actually lifts from the carpet and absorbs into the towel!



The stain is over half gone!



I sprayed some more solution on it, let it sit some more with a fresh part of the towel, then ironed it again.



The stain is almost all gone! If you didn't know there was something there before you wouldn't even be able to find anything odd about it. Other than I have once clean spot in the carpet.



So of course I couldn't stop at just one stain. I moved onto the bedroom where this one stain has been making me crazy. It's been there for well over a year .



 



 



 



 

After two treatments you can't even see the stain anymore!

I really want to do every inch of my carpets now! Unfortunately this will take years, so I'll have to be content with spot treating the bad spots until it's all clean. The downside is that my house smells faintly of ammonia. I'm guessing this will clear out in a day. I also read that you can use one part vinegar and 3 parts water instead of the ammonia. I'll have to try that one out too.