Miracle Carpet Stain Remover

It’s been 6 years since I’ve lived in my home.  I haven’t had that many carpet stains to deal with, and luckily, I have been able to remove the few that I have had very easily.  My family always removes our shoes at the door, we do not have any furry friends, and my children are not allowed to drink anything but water in carpeted areas, so I think that helps in the “stain department” a little bit.  Well, I think I finally got a doozy of a stain to make up for all of the carpet stains my life has lacked.

Let me tell you how this stain appeared. I was at the gym and my husband was home with our children. I came home and everything was fine. The kids were happy. My husband was happy. Momma who just worked out was happy. Nonchalantly, my husband tells me they had a little bit of a problem while I was gone. The kids got into his Crystal Light. Yes, I did say his. Haha!  They took off with a single serving pouch and the powder accidentally spilled all over my son’s bedroom carpet. I didn’t even blink an eye because I was just figuring the mess was vacuumed up. We chatted for a little bit more, I forgot about the mishap and I began putting away laundry. I entered my sons bedroom and OH EM GEE! My heart may have stopped.  I immediately found my husband and said “I cannot believe the stain in the bedroom! It is horrible! Was the Crystal Light in liquid form? I assumed the kids spilled the powder and the mess was cleaned up with a vacuum.” Well, the powder was spilled, but my husband began spraying it with Resolve Carpet Cleaner…………I KNOW!!! 😮 OH EM GEE again!

I tried everything to remove the stains. I bought 3 different types of carpet stain removers, one of them claiming to be as powerful as the cleaner professionals use. I also borrowed my parents Bissell Powersteamer, unfortunately, that did not work either. If we want to look at this situation in a positive light, since I had the Bissell Powersteamer in my possession, I decided to clean all of the carpets in my home; they turned out beautifully, it just didn’t remove the giant Crystal Light Stains. Oh well, you win some, you lose some!

One more thing to show why this is a doozy of all doozies.  There must have been Crystal Light Powder embedded in my daughters bedroom carpet too. The powder is white, so I never noticed it.  Not sure how! Maybe the powder was kind of stuck there? (The carpet had been vacuumed a couple of times since the incident and I vacuumed the whole house before I steamed the carpets.) Well, I was power steaming her bedroom carpet and after a couple of swipes, all I could see was red. OH EM GEE a third time. This stain was worse than the original stain in my son’s bedroom.

Now it was time to research! I am happy to say that through my research I found a MIRACLE Carpet Stain Remover. You probably have all of the supplies to make it in your home right now. A HUGE bonus: The recipe contains not one nasty chemical, you’ll just have to deal with the smell of vinegar, but trust me, it’s worth it!  Let’s get down to business. I’ll give you the recipe and show you what to do. Save this! It really WORKS! I promise!! If you have any old stains, try giving this a whirl.

Here is what you will need:

*Distilled White Vinegar
*An Empty Spray Bottle
*A Clean White Towel
*An Iron
*Hot Tap Water

1. Fill your empty spray bottle with one part vinegar, one part HOT tap water
2. Spray the mixture on the carpet stain
3. Lay a clean, white, DAMP towel over the stain you just sprayed
4. Set your iron to “steam setting” and place the hot iron on top of the damp towel that is covering your stain
5. Leave the iron on the stain for about 30 seconds
6. Watch the stain appear on your white towel and “happy dance”
7. Repeat steps 2-6 as needed, until your stain is completely gone

I have completed these steps 2 times. My stain is not completely gone, but it is working. Apparently, Crystal Light is one of the most difficult stains to get out of carpets and I do have a little bit of a shag carpet, so I have both of those factors to contend with. Follow along and watch the magic unfold below:

This is what the stain looked like after I used 3 different carpet stain removers and a power steamer that also included carpet cleaner. Pretty bad, huh?

I sprayed the stain with a mixture that I created: one part vinegar and one part hot tap water.

I placed a clean, white, damp towel over the stain.

I placed a hot iron (on steam setting) on the damp towel that I had placed over the stain.

I “happy danced” as I watched the stain transfer to the clean, white, damp towel.

This is what the carpet stain looked like after one treatment.

I had a sink full of tinted pink towels. I went through 4 towels after the first treatment.

This is what the stain looked like after the 2nd treatment.

And that brings me right here to this moment. I have not completed the 3rd treatment yet. I feel like I have been cleaning carpets for 4 days straight and I thought maybe I would use the free time that I have (husband has been in the woods all day, he is home now and I get a little break 🙂 ) to do something that I enjoy for a little bit, you know, like blogging and making wreaths. 🙂 After seeing the results so far, I am very confident that after a few more treatments, the stains will be gone.

Please note: I am not a carpet cleaning expert. This was trial and error for me and I must admit, I was a little nervous at first about burning the carpet. When I first began, I would only leave the hot iron on the damp towel for a couple of seconds. As I became more comfortable, I discovered this process works best when the stain is liberally sprayed with the vinegar/water mixture and the iron is left on the damp towel for at least 30 seconds. That is when most of the stain would transfer to the towel. I realize I am working on a huge stain, so it requires a little bit of patience and time. For all of you that have smaller carpet stains, new or old,  the process will probably be much simpler for you and might only require one treatment. Please remember to use a white towel. I would feel awful if color from a colored towel transferred to your carpet!! Plus, it’s fun to watch the magic unfold!! 🙂

Please let me know if you give this method a try. I would love to know what you think!! You can comment below this blog post or find me on Facebook. 🙂 If you would like to receive all of my posts directly in your inbox, you may subscribe to my blog by entering your email address in the box on the right side of this page. 🙂

Happy Cleaning!!

Colette