It is Harvest season when we buy our pumpkins to carve jack-o-lanterns or make delicious pies and cookies for family and friends. When pumpkin innards get everywhere, including on our carpet and rugs, getting pumpkin stain out can be a bit tricky. Ameribest Carpet Cleaning will share how you can get pumpkin stain out of your carpets or rugs.
Pumpkins, inside and out, have a lush orange coloring that can stain carpets or rug permanently. Pumpkin stains, when they occur, need to be cleaned as soon as possible to ensure that your carpet or rugs don't get stained permanently. If you are carving pumpkin for decorations or making goodies from scratch and you get some pumpkin pits or core pieces on the rug or carpet, use a clean spoon to gather or scrape away the thicker chunks. To prevent orange pumpkin stains, you will want to treat the stain immediately. When the carpet or rug surface is free of the stringy pit, apply a cleaning mixture. For treating pumpkin stains, mix together warm water and liquid dish soap together in a bowl. With a white cleaning cloth, dip the cloth into the mixture and blot gently at the stain. Whenever you clean a stain on carpet, upholstery, or rug, always use a clean white cloth. Colored cloths will seep dye and cause bigger or worse stains. Additionally, never scrub at a stain as you can cause the stain to spread out or seep deeper into the fabric.
Continue using the mixture and blot at the stain as stated. Check to see if the pumpkin is transferring to the cloth and use different sections that are clean to prevent adding stain back into the carpet. As the stain begins to dissolve, use a dry cloth to absorb the moisture out of the carpet or rug. Next rinse the area with straight water. Use the same blotting method to rinse the soap out of the carpet, dip and blot and dry. This will take a few times to remove the stain. However, rinsing is important. If soap remains in the fibers, it will collect dirt and cause future stains. To help dry the affected area faster, you can place a thick towel or cleaning cloth that's folded, then place it over the damp area and place something heavy on top. After a few minutes much of the moisture in the carpet should have absorbed into the cloth or towel. Once the carpet is dry you can vacuum the carpet to help restore the carpet's pile if needed.
If you are not able to remove the stain using the liquid dish soap mixture, you can also try using a grease or oil stain remover. If the fiber from the pumpkin pit has dried on top of the carpet or rug, scrape off what you can with a butter knife or spoon. Then use rubbing alcohol to soften the rest of the pumpkin pit to help remove the remaining chunks. If you need help removing stubborn stains or need your carpet or rug professionally cleaned, contact Ameribest Carpet Cleaning and schedule our services today!