Recipe 39 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book
How to Get Grease and Butter Stains Out of Carpet
Dropped butter, salad dressing or pizza grease on the carpet? Scrape up the solids, cover the spot 1/4 inch deep in equal parts cornstarch and baking soda and leave it at least 2 hours, then vacuum. Dab the shadow with 70% rubbing alcohol on a white towel, then blot with warm soapy water. Patch test first and keep flames away.
What it fixesDropped butter, salad dressing, motor oil off a shoe, pizza grease, and makeup foundation on carpet.
You need
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 cup baking soda
- 1/4 cup 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol
- 1 cup warm water (240 ml) with 1 teaspoon clear dish soap stirred in
- 2 white towels
- Dull butter knife and a vacuum
Mix it
- Stir the cornstarch and baking soda together. That is your absorbent powder.
- Keep the rubbing alcohol in a small dish.
- Mix the warm water and dish soap in a separate bowl for the final wash.
Use it
- Patch test the alcohol on a hidden fiber. Dab it, wait, and check the towel for color.
- Scrape up any solid grease with the dull knife. Lift, do not press.
- Cover the spot with a thick layer of the powder mix, at least 1/4 inch. Do not rub it in.
- Leave it 2 hours minimum. Overnight is better. The powder wicks the oil up out of the fiber core.
- Vacuum thoroughly, going over it four or five times from different directions.
- Dampen a corner of a white towel with rubbing alcohol and dab the remaining shadow. Work from outside in. The alcohol is the solvent that finishes what the powder could not reach.
- Follow immediately with the soapy water on a clean towel, blotting to remove the alcohol and the dissolved oil together.
- Blot dry under body weight.
Dale's noteThe two hour powder wait is not optional and it is not laziness. Oil moves slowly. Every minute the powder sits, less of it is left for the solvent step, and the solvent step is the one that risks the carpet.
Don'tKeep this away from open flame, pilot lights, and space heaters, and open a window. Isopropyl vapor is flammable and it pools low, right where carpet is. Never use the alcohol step on latex backed area rugs or foam backed bath rugs, because alcohol dissolves the backing adhesive and the rug will start shedding rubber crumbs.
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