Have you had any “oops” moments lately – where you spilled sauce on a carpet? Whatever kind they may be, sauces never hesitate to leave their mark on your cherished carpeting.
The reputation of sauces has almost become synonymous with their staining prowess. Read on to learn how to rescue your carpet from an unfortunate saucy accident.
Tomato sauce, one of the most widely used sauces around the globe, is the major culprit when it comes to sauce stains. Barbecue or BBQ sauce, chocolate sauce, pasta sauce, marinara, hot sauce – you name it and it’s bound to have ended up on someone’s shirt or carpet at one time or another. But you can easily get sauce out of carpet.
While bleach is the most obvious choice for most stain removal jobs, it’s usually too harsh for carpets. There’s also commercial stain removers, but they are often expensive and don’t always work to the customer’s satisfaction.
You probably have various household cleaners on hand that can be used effectively as well as being kind to your budget. But to get that sauce completely out of the carpet, you’ll need to stick with a strategy and put in some effort.
This article will help you to deal with 3 common sauce stains - tomato sauce, chocolate sauce and barbecue sauce, popularly called barbeque or BBQ sauce.
Start with the basic spot cleaning process. If that doesn’t work, try one of the other four methods to get sauce stain out of your carpet. The lemon juice and ammonia methods are best for extremely stubborn stains.
Contents
Basic Spot Cleaning (Primary Process)
Basic spot cleaning with a simple dish soap solution should be tried first for any sort of stain removal, including sauce stains. You can easily make it in a spray bottle by simply mixing liquid dish soap and water.
Things you’ll need:
- Water in a spray bottle – 2 cups
- Liquid dish soap (mild cleaning agent)– 2 tablespoons
- Household sponge
- Butter Knife
Step 1. Combine dish soap and water in a spray bottle
- Pour 2 cups of water into a spray bottle and add 2 tablespoons of liquid dish soap to it.
- Secure the spray nozzle onto the bottle, and give it a couple of shakes to mix the dish soap completely into the water.
Step 2. Scrape the sauce off the surface
- Get to the stain as soon as possible and scrape off as much sauce as you can easily with a flat instrument like a butter knife. This prevents fraying of the carpet fibers.
- Do this without pressing down on the stain, which would only push the sauce further into the carpet.
Step 3. Saturate the stain with dish soap solution
- Spray the stained area with dish soap solution, saturating the stain.
Step 4. Sponge to lift the stain
- Sponge the stained area, without scrubbing at it.
- Continue with this process until all of the sauce is cleaned out of the carpet. Reapply the dish soap solution if required.
- In some cases, the stain can be removed completely with just basic spot cleaning, after which you can proceed to thoroughly dry the carpet.
Stain Removal
If you’re lucky, a thorough spot cleaning should take care of that bold sauce stain on your carpet. But if the stain is particularly stubborn, you can use any of the four methods below to completely remove the sauce stain.
Method 1: Using Hydrogen Peroxide
Sauce stains are oxidizable and are quite similar to tea and coffee stains. A natural bleaching agent, hydrogen peroxide is very effective for sauce stain removal. Use 3% hydrogen peroxide, which is used as an antiseptic and can be easily found in any drugstore, for this purpose.
Things you’ll need:
- 3% hydrogen peroxide (natural bleaching agent)
- Water
- Paper towels
- Kitchen towel
Initial Step: Dilute the hydrogen peroxide
- Mix 1 part of 3% hydrogen peroxide with 3 parts of water in order to dilute it.
#Barbecue Sauce
- Pour the diluted hydrogen peroxide over the barbecue sauce stain.
- Cover it with paper towels, and allow it to sit for a few minutes to let the paper towels absorb the stain. Replace soggy paper towels with fresh ones as needed.
- Blot the area with a kitchen towel to soak up any moisture, and let the carpet dry completely.
#Chocolate Sauce
- Soak the chocolate stain on the carpet with diluted hydrogen peroxide.
- Place paper towels over the stain, and let it sit for a few minutes.
- Remove the soggy and stained paper towels, then blot up the remaining moisture with a kitchen towel.
- Let the carpet dry completely.
#Tomato Sauce
- Pour the diluted hydrogen peroxide over the tomato sauce stain.
- Put paper towels on the wet spot.
- Let it sit for a few minutes to allow the stain along with the cleaning solution to be absorbed by the paper towels.
- Once the stain has lifted, blot up any remaining moisture with a kitchen towel and let it dry.
Method 2: Using White Vinegar
White vinegar is another popular stain removal agent that is very effective for cleaning spilled sauce out of your carpet. Vinegar cuts through the oil and grease, thus preventing the stain from setting into the carpet fibers.
Things you’ll need:
- White vinegar (degreaser and stain remover)
- Water
- Paper towels
- Kitchen towel
Initial Step: Dilute the white vinegar
- Dilute white vinegar by mixing it with an equal amount of water.
#Barbecue Sauce
- Pour the diluted vinegar over the barbecue sauce stain on the carpet.
- Cover it with paper towels, and allow it to sit for a few minutes. This will pull the stain along with the vinegar onto the paper towels.
- When the stain has lifted, blot up the excess moisture with a kitchen towel and let the carpet dry completely.
#Chocolate Sauce
- Pour the diluted vinegar over the chocolate stain on the carpet.
- Place paper towels over the wet spot, and allow it to sit for a few minutes. This will lift the vinegar along with the stain onto the paper towel.
- When the stain is completely gone, blot up the excess liquid with a kitchen towel.
- Let the carpet dry completely.
#Tomato Sauce
- Pour the vinegar solution over the tomato sauce stain.
- Cover it with paper towels, and let it sit for a few minutes.
- When the stain has completely lifted onto the paper towels, blot the area with a kitchen towel to absorb any moisture from the surface.
- Allow the carpet to dry completely.
Method 3: Using Lemon Juice
Lemon juice is a natural bleaching agent and can be used to get rid of any remaining sauce stain. This method can come in really handy in a pinch. All you need to do is make a trip to your kitchen and squeeze out the juice from a lemon or two. Lime juice also works well for this purpose.
Things you’ll need:
- Lemon juice (natural bleaching agent)
- Household sponge
- Kitchen towel
#Barbecue Sauce
- Pour fresh lemon juice over the lingering barbecue sauce stain until it is sufficiently saturated.
- Let the lemon juice sit for a few minutes before blotting it up with a sponge.
- Repeat the process until the stain completely comes out of the carpet.
- Blot up the excess moisture with a kitchen towel, and allow the carpet to dry completely.
#Chocolate Sauce
- Pour lemon juice over the remaining chocolate stain and let sit a while.
- Blot the spot with a sponge until the stain comes out.
- Repeat the process if needed.
- Absorb any excess moisture with a kitchen towel, and let the carpet dry.
#Tomato Sauce
- Pour some lemon juice over the tomato sauce stain on your carpet, and let it work for a few minutes.
- Blot up the stain with a sponge.
- Repeat the process as needed until the stain is completely removed.
- Soak up the remaining moisture with a kitchen towel, and let the carpet dry completely.
Method 4: Using Ammonia
Ammonia is an inexpensive but effective stain remover. It is known for getting tough stains out of a variety of fabrics and can make your dishes sparkle as well. You can even clean your oven with it.
When used in diluted form, it is actually less harsh than regular bleach, making it suitable for use on most carpets. You can easily use diluted ammonia to get a variety of sauce stains out of your carpet. You can dilute ammonia by mixing 1 part of ammonia with 3 or 4 parts of water.
Things you’ll need:
- Diluted ammonia (carpet friendly stain remover)
- Water
- Old cotton cloth
#Barbecue Sauce
- Pour the diluted ammonia over the barbecue stain, and let it sit for a while.
- Blot the stain with an old absorbent towel until the sauce lifts out completely.
- Blot up the excess liquid and let the carpet dry.
#Chocolate Sauce
- Cover the chocolate stain with the diluted ammonia.
- Blot up the ammonia with an old absorbent cotton cloth, lifting out the stain along with it.
- Continue until no stain or moisture remains on the carpet, then let the area dry completely.
#Tomato Sauce
- Saturate the tomato sauce stain with ammonia, and let it sit for a couple of minutes.
- Blot the stained area until all of the stain and moisture completely lift from the carpet.
- Let the carpet air-dry.
Tips
- Wear cleaning gloves to protect your hands from the various cleaning agents.
- Consider removing carpet flooring from the dining area, so food spills can be cleaned up easier.
- Test any cleaning agent on an inconspicuous area of the carpet before actually using it. This spot testing can be done on the carpeting inside a closet or under furniture. If the color bleeds or there’s any discoloration, try another cleaning agent to find the one that suits the fabric of your carpet.
- When it comes to food stains on the carpet, the sooner you start on them the better. The longer the stain sits on the carpet, the more difficult it will be to remove.
- Never mix ammonia with bleach or bleach-based detergents.