Now that the holiday season is over, and you've taken the time to destress after all the shopping and activity, it's time to really start cleaning up after all the parties and guests. Invariably, someone at one of the events at your house spilled some wine, but not on your kitchen floor. No, they spilled the wine on the lush carpeting in the den, and you can still the discoloration on the carpet a couple of weeks later. Here is what you have to do to get rid of that stain and get your carpeting looking like new again.
Make a Cleaning Paste
Take a small bowl and fill it about a quarter of the way with cold water. Make sure you use cold water because lukewarm and hot water will cause the stain to move.
Pour about a half a cup of vinegar into the bowl. The important thing is that the amount of cold water and vinegar is the same in the bowl. So, if you only have a small stain, use less water and vinegar. Conversely, if you have a very large stain, just add more water and vinegar to a bigger bowl.
Pour a little bit of the mixture into another smaller bowl so you can make a paste.
Add baking soda to the small bowl. You want to add enough baking soda so the watery solution turns into a creamy paste with the consistency of frosting.
Applying Paste
Put on a pair of rubber gloves. Scoop out enough from the bowl to apply a thick coating of paste over the top of the stain.
Gently massage the paste down to the bottom of the fibers in the rug with an up and down patting motion. You don't want to swirl the fibers around in a circular motion. A circular motion can damage the fibers and make the stain spread.
Let the paste sit for a half an hour or more to give it time to work.
Removing Stain
The paste will harden after you let it sit for a while. Take a clean kitchen towel and start rubbing from the bottom of the paste layer in the fibers upward. This motion will force the paste to rise up to the surface of the carpet where you can remove with a vacuum.
Pour cold water and vinegar from the bigger bowl onto the stained area to get it wet, and then start to dab the area dry with clean white cloths.
Stop dabbing when you don't see any more stains getting on the white cloth and you don't see any left in the carpet. For any further assistance, contact a local carpet cleaning service.