You had some friends over last night and ordered some pizza to enjoy while watching your favourite show. Well, that was fun, but this morning you found a piece of pizza lying on the rug, of course with the messy side down.
Don’t worry, if you do the right things, you will likely remove the stain successfully.
Here is how to clean pizza stains out of your rug:
- First of all remove the pizza of course, and use a spoon or dull knife to remove any other residue from the fibres of the rug. Don’t scrape too hard, to keep the fibres from being damaged.
- Get a clean, empty spray bottle and add a quart of cold water a teaspoon of liquid dish washing detergent and a tablespoon of white vinegar.
- Spray the stain with your homemade cleaning solution.
- Use a clean white cloth to blot the spot and watch how the tomato paste and other stuff transfers from the carpet to the cloth. Keep dabbing until no more transfer is visible on the cloth.
- Never rub a stain, as you will cause it to grow bigger and might just ingrain the spilled stuff deeper in the texture.
- Blot starting from the outer edge of the stain and move toward the centre – once again to avoid spreading the stain farther out.
- Use another spray bottle but only with clean water to rinse the stain.
- Spray over it, but don’t oversaturate the rug, because you can damage it and the floor beneath it.
- Use a clean cloth or towel to remove the cleaning solution and rinse the spot. Again, use a clean cloth and dabbing motions.
- Once you are done, place a dry clean cloth or a pile of paper towels on top of the area of the rug you treated and place something heavy on top of it, so that the water is absorbed.
- Let it sit like that for a few hours, and then remove the paper towels or cloth and let it dry completely.
- When it is completely dry, hoover the area, so that fibres of the rug get back to their normal shape.
Some additional tips to keep in mind:
- Before applying any stain removing or carpet cleaning solution, always perform a spot test on a small inconspicuous area on the rug with the cleaning solution, because even only water can damage the carpet.
- Never use laundry or automatic dishwashing detergent, because they can damage your carpet.
- If you have a particularly delicate, antique, silk or other similar rug, it is better to call professionals to deal with the stain.