There can be few liquids which cause as much consternation and anguish if they are spilt on a carpet as red wine, with the immediate thought often being that no amount of carpet cleaning is going to remove it.
Apart from the obvious loss of a glass of what may have been a very fine red wine, it is as important to know what you should never do in order to prevent your carpet from being permanently stained, as it is to know what you can do.
The most obvious thing that everyone thinks they should do is try to rub the spot where the wine was spilt. This is going to cause more problems than it solves, so no rubbing the stain.
Instead, there are several techniques used by the top commercial cleaning professionals which you can use to remove red wine stains, but before going into them in detail, here is the first step you should take before any of them.
Wherever the wine has been spilt, use absorbent paper or cloth to soak as much of the wine as possible. Do this by gently dabbing the stain in the same way you would soak up ink or water on a hard surface. Again, we stress, DO NOT RUB the stain, as this simply spreads the stain into a greater area.
One tip which might help this process is that you can pour some cold water onto the affected area which dilutes the stain further in order for you to soak more of it up with your absorbent cloth or paper
Ok, here are the ways you can completely remove a red wine stain.
Salt
Cover the entire area of the red wine stain with salt to the extent that when you look down on the area, you can no longer see any of the red wine stain. Go about your business in order for the salt to start soaking up the wine. It does this as it is drying, and once the process is complete, you can then vacuum it all up, and the red wine stain should be gone.
Baking Soda
After using the soaking up process, you create a paste using three parts baking soda to one part cold water. Mix it thoroughly and then spread the paste over the entire area of the stain as though you were icing a cake.
Leave the paste in place and wait for it to dry. Once you are sure it has dried completely you can then vacuum it up, and with it the stain should come too.
Vinegar
Vinegar is a liquid that has an amazing number of uses, and thankfully for anyone with a wine stain on their carpet, it can be used to remove it. Again, you should first of all follow the initial soaking up process.
The solution you will be preparing requires you to add one tablespoon of vinegar, and one tablespoon of dishwashing liquid to two cups of warm water in a bowl.
Thoroughly mix it, and then apply it on to the wine-stained area using a sponge. The sponge with the help of the vinegar based solution you have made should cause the stain to be removed as you go round it and dab gently.
Club Soda
With this, you simply pour club soda onto the wine stain and then dab it up using an absorbent paper, cloth, or towel.