How to Clean Liquid Spills From Your Carpet
Hi! I’m Katie. I’m from the Raleigh area in North Carolina, and I provide free, professional spot cleaning advice in order to equip our clients with sound information and allow them the best chance at successful spot removal and stain prevention. If you’re looking for spot cleaning information, you’ve come to the right place!
Dealing with Large Volume Spills
Today we are going to deal with large volume spills. What that means is it is more than just the splash of a drink or what’s in the bottom of your cup. Earlier this year on my birthday my girlfriends and my husband surprised me at work and showed up unexpectedly. They brought lunch and drinks and flowers which was super sweet. I’m trying to take this all home at the end of the day and as you can imagine when you’re hands are full things just happen. This was a large volume spill and it can be a bummer when this happens.
Step One
What we need is a white cotton towel. We’re going to bypass the hand towel and go straight to a bath-sized towel because you need a lot of absorption. What we have is about 12-16 ounces to clean up. Try to keep in mind how much actually spilled and where it went so you can get it all absorbed.
Start by placing the towel on top of the spot and press gently to absorb the liquid into the cotton towel. You may need more than one towel depending on the volume of the spot you are cleaning.
Step Two
Once you have the water absorbed as best you can, you can follow-up with a spot cleaner depending on what the liquid was that spilled into the rug or carpet.
Step Three
Once you’ve completed the spot cleaning treatment, you’re ready to set up the “Towel and Book Method”. This is a passive way to extract water so you don’t have to sit and wait. You’ll want to put the towel over the damp area and then find something flat and impermeable, such as a cookie sheet.
Place the impermeable item on top of the towel and then place a heavy book atop the item. Let this all sit for 24-hours to allow the process to slowly move the water up from the rug into the towel. Don’t peak before the 24-hours or you will break the train and have to start the process over.
Watch
As always, you can watch the process here:
Happy Spotting!