10 Spot Cleaning Secrets
Vomit, grease, gum, food and drink, wax, glue, ink… These are a few of our LEAST favorite things on carpet and couches.
Now that we've just left your home cleaner and healthier — with zero soapy residues left behind — you'll get to enjoy remarkably clean floors and surfaces for the next several months. But accidents happen. We get it. When it happens, try these little cleaning secrets:
- Apply Zerorez Spot Removing Formula. Hands down the best option for removing stains from your carpet and upholstery. It's a unique formula that contains no harmful chemicals that would damage surfaces. If you don't already have some, give our office a call to pick up a bottle.
- Avoid rubbing stains. Rubbing a stain only pushes the stain deeper into the carpet fibers. INSTEAD, blot the stain using warm water…put pressure on the stain using a clean cloth and work outside towards the inside of the stain to help prevent the stain from spreading.
- Use a little vinegar. Using a dry clean cloth, blot a mix of vinegar and water on the stain and then blot it dry. Amazing, right?
- Stack ice cubes — seriously. When you find a gob of chewing gum stuck on your carpet, don't panic! Just go to your refrigerator and take out some ice cubes. Stack them on the stuck gum for a minute. After this, take a spoon or butter knife and scoop or scrape the gum. Don't 'dig' so hard that you damage the carpet fibers.
- Apply dish soap. When you get a grease spot, mix some drops of dish detergent with water and blot on the spot. Use sparingly! Then, using a clean cloth and water blot repeatedly to remove the detergent.
- Use your iron. In the rare case that you get candle wax drops on your carpet, get a clean dry white cloth and place it on top of the wax dripping site. Then, put a warm iron on top of the cloth for about a minute. After that, remove the iron and the cloth and scrape off the candle wax with a butter knife. Be careful to not dig so deep that you damage the carpet fibers. Don't leave the iron where little ones could get burned and don't let it sit longer than a minute.
- Sprinkle with baking soda. If you have bad smells in your carpet, sprinkle some baking soda on the carpet and then vacuum it up thoroughly.
- Rub with rubbing alcohol. If you get glue on your carpet, wet a clean cloth with rubbing alcohol and rub the spot clean.
- Mix milk and cornstarch. If you get an ink spot, mix some milk and cornstarch to form a paste and rub it on the ink stain. Leave it overnight and remove with a clean cloth and water the next day.
- Try lemon juice with a dash of salt. Pour some lemon juice directly on the stain, sprinkle salt on top and blot it up with a wet cloth.
What's NOT a secret is that your carpets need regular professional care, using steam cleaning, as recommended by all carpet manufacturers. It is thorough and leaves the carpet cleaner and fresher than before. The best guys to do this are your friends at Zerorez® who use patented Zr™ Water which cleans the carpet completely and leaves behind no soil-attracting residue! Doing this regularly will probably save you a lot of time from constantly working on the spots!
