Football season is upon us, which means social gatherings around the television complete with delicious snacks and drinks. Unfortunately, in the exuberance of exciting plays, touchdowns and bad calls, accidents inevitably happen and soda, dips, wings and other snacks end up fumbled onto the carpets. To avoid carpet stains that can ruin the enjoyment of the game, here are few helpful tips for cleaning those messes out of the carpet.
When football snacks and carpets collide
Everyone has their favorite type of snacks to eat while watching football, from wings to pizza, to chips and dip. As long as it all goes in mouths and not on the floor, it’s a good game, but accidents happen and it’s important to be prepared. Nothing should interfere with your enjoyment and your guests’ enjoyment of the game, so next time a plate of food or a cup of soda ends up on the floor, know how to handle some of the most common football snack stains.
- Soda – Blot up as much of the liquid as you can with a clean, dry cloth or paper towels. Follow by blotting with a detergent solution, rinsing the detergent out and allowing it to air dry. For any stain that may remain, soak for 30 minutes with glycerin and then rinse with clean water and allow to dry.
- Condiments – For ketchup, mustard and barbecue sauce spills, apply a vinegar solution, blot, and then apply a detergent solution. Blot again and if there’s remaining stain, try a hydrogen peroxide solution or rust remove and blot. Never use alkaline cleaners or ammonia as it can damage the carpet fibers and be highly unpleasant to breathe in.
- Grease – If you or your guests drop a greasy hamburger, hot dog, or even steak tips if you’re snacks are very gourmet, apply a dry cleaning solvent and work toward the center to prevent an oily ring around the grease spot. Blot the dry cleaning solvent then apply a detergent solution, rinse and blot dry.
- If someone gets sick – On the chance that someone over imbibes and/or eats too much at your football gathering and gets sick on your carpet, clean up as much as you can and apply a bacteria/enzyme digester according to the product directions. When the product is dry, remove the stain with a detergent solution, rinse and blot dry.
If you need a refresher on detergent and vinegar cleaning solutions, here’s an excerpt from our previous post entitled “If you have kids and carpets, this is a must-read”:
Homemade cleaning solutions for spot treatments
Before you start tackling common kid carpet stains, it helps to know how to make homemade cleaning solutions that can work effectively to remove spots. What’s safe for synthetic carpets isn’t necessarily safe for natural fiber carpets, so here’s a breakdown of the solutions:
Synthetic fiber carpet spot treatments:
- Detergent solution – 1⁄4 teaspoon clear liquid dishwashing detergent in 1 cup lukewarm water
- Vinegar solution – 1 cup white vinegar with 2 cups water
Natural fiber carpet spot treatments:
- Detergent solution – 1 teaspoon clear liquid dishwashing detergent in 1 cup lukewarm water
- Vinegar solution – 1⁄4 cup white vinegar with 1⁄4 cup water
For those stains that you can’t get out or are hesitant to deal with, contact Embassy Cleaners for our professional carpet and area rug cleaning services. With us, you never have to worry about damaged carpets or dirty upholstery and we’ll get your favorite gathering room clean and ready for the entire season.
