How to Get Spilled Liquids Out Of Carpet

No matter how careful we are there will be accidents. There’s even the “no food or drinks outside the kitchen” rule. Spills are going to happen and if handled correctly they usually won’t be a permanent problem. The IMPORTANT thing to do is to clean it up BEFORE it dries. EVERYTHING becomes difficult to get out once it dries.

If you spill coffee, coke, tea, OJ, etc get up as much as you can with a white terry cloth, microfiber cloth or something absorbent. If the towels aren’t getting the job done and you have a wet-dry vac I would recommend using it. If those aren’t options try keeping the are damp. You can put a moist towel over the area(s) if necessary. Go to you local grocery store, Home Depot, Lowes or Walmart and rent a Rug Doctor or Bissell home cleaning machine. DO NOT PURCHASE anything to put in or use with the machine. They probably sell 10-15 different types of products for their particular machine. All you probably need is plain, cold water. You want to extract, suck all the excess liquid up and out/off the carpet.

The products they sell for the machines is soapy, they also sell anti-soap products to reduce or remove the soap from their own product. It’s best not so use soap to begin with. You want to avoid using soapy products on the carpet because once it dries it will be sticky and attract dirt. Most dark, discolored spots on carpet are from soapy spot cleaners, home shampooers or other carpet cleaners. Not sure if the cleaner is soapy? Shake up the bottle before you buy it. If you see it, hear it or feel it foam up, it’s soapy and it will more than likely cause problems.

Using the Rug Doctor, Bissell Carpet Machine

All you really need to do is the use the sucking/extraction feature to suck up all the excess fluid. You may have to go over it several times. Keep going over it removing the excess liquid until there is no longer any color in the liquid coming up/out. Again, you probably don’t need any “cleaners” just plain cold water and the extraction feature on the machine.

If the liquid has already dried

As you can see in this photo the liquid has already dried. We were told by the customer that his son spilled a glass of orange juice and “hid” it and that this spot has been there “for a long time.” I wasn’t very optimistic about this spot because of it age and how well set and crusty the dried parts were.

Well at OMG! we DO NOT charge extra for spots, heavily soiled areas etc. HOWEVER we classify this particular situation as a clean UP, not cleaning. We usually charge more if we are cleaning up, but this was an Army Veteran so I waived the “clean up” charge to express my appreciation for his service to our country. As you can see in the following to pictures everything looks great and our client was extremely pleased. Because as with most customers he called to have his carpets cleaned because of a spot, or “stain” as he called it.

Most customers don’t get their carpet cleaned when their supposed to, every 6 months, they get the cleaned when they “have to” or when there is something visible that they can no longer stand looking at. We are happy to take care of all carpet, rug and upholstery cleaning needs.