Don't Spill on the Carpet!

Or at least clean it up immediately afterward. There are a lot of problems when it comes to food stains on your carpets, and now that we're moving into autumn with Halloween just around the corner, let's face it, there's going to be a lot of food (and candy!) floating around your house. Even if you set a rule of no food or candy or drinks on the carpet, kids will be kids, and you know at least one of them is going to try and secretly get some candy into those areas where food is off-limits. So the real trick becomes cleaning up those stains once the candy's hit the carpet.

First, let me explain how foods affect your carpet. Most foods are fairly solid and contain very little dye, so they'll mostly form a purely external stain which cleans up fairly well. Using a home cleaner with natural ingredients (like our Zerorez® Spot Remover) will get it out, and anything that requires a little extra effort can be handled with relative ease by a certified Zerorez technician. That being said, there are some foods to look out for, like coffee, anything acidic, and anything red. With coffee and sugary or acidic drinks (like soda pop), the faster you clean it up, the better off you'll be. You see, the longer you let coffee sit in the carpet, the more those brown tannens will start dying your carpet. The same goes for acidic drinks, which can over time begin leeching the color irreversibly out of your carpet (we call this color loss). If you get these early enough, though, the damage can be prevented.

The real problem lies in those foods which have been heavily died, which are usually a bright red, but can be any hue of bright neon. Not only will these leech the color out of the carpet and lead to fading, but they'll re-dye the carpet with the dyes they contain, leading to bright stains that even the most skilled cleaner can't get out. Don't get me wrong, your technician will still be able to remove all of the sugar, proteins and other matter from your carpet, but once the color's gone, it's gone.

Make sure you're proactive and realistic with these stains. Clean them up as soon as possible, and if necessary, call Zerorez to get it taken care of for good. Otherwise, you may just end up with some tie-dyed carpet, and I think it's time to say good-bye to the 70s. Stay clean, Indy.

-Zerorez-