Recipe 38 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book
Red Wine on the Carpet During the Holidays? Salt First, Then Club Soda
Blot up the free liquid first and add nothing yet. Pile table salt 1/4 inch thick over the stain and leave it 15 minutes while it pulls the red up. Scoop and vacuum, pour on a little chilled club soda and blot hard. Dab what's left with 1/4 cup 3% hydrogen peroxide and one drop of clear dish soap, patch tested 30 minutes first, wait 30 minutes, blot, then blot with cold water. Never hot water on carpet. For light synthetic carpet, not wool.
What it fixesRed wine, grape juice, cranberry, fruit punch, and berry stains on light colored synthetic carpet.
You need
- 1/4 cup table salt
- 1 can plain club soda, chilled
- 1/4 cup 3% hydrogen peroxide (60 ml)
- 1 drop clear dish soap
- 1 small open top bowl, not a sealed bottle
- 3 white towels
- Spoon
Mix it
- Keep the salt dry and ready.
- In the open bowl, stir the hydrogen peroxide together with one single drop of dish soap. Mix it fresh and use it within the hour, and never cap it in a sealed bottle, because peroxide and soap give off oxygen gas and build pressure until the bottle splits.
- Leave the club soda sealed until you need it so it stays carbonated.
Use it
- Patch test the peroxide mix in a hidden spot, wait a full 30 minutes before you check because peroxide lightening shows up slowly, and blot with a white towel to look for dye bleed.
- Blot up all the free liquid you can. Do not add anything yet.
- Pile the dry salt over the whole stain, about 1/4 inch thick. Leave it 15 minutes. The salt pulls the remaining pigment up out of the fiber by capillary action and turns pink as it works.
- Scoop the wet salt off with a spoon and vacuum the rest.
- Pour a small amount of club soda over the spot. The carbonation floats loosened pigment toward the surface.
- Blot hard with a clean towel, refolding to dry sections.
- Now dab the peroxide and soap mix onto whatever color is left, using a towel. Wet the stain and no more, since anything that reaches the pad is a two day drying job.
- Wait 30 minutes, blot dry, then blot once with plain cold water.
Dale's noteSalt first, always. If you go straight to liquid you dilute the wine and spread a 3 inch stain into an 8 inch one. And chilled club soda works better than room temperature because it holds more gas. Peroxide is the finisher because it is an oxidizer, meaning it breaks the color carrying part of the molecule apart instead of trying to dissolve the pigment and rinse it back out. Ignore the lemon juice and vinegar tips floating around online. Red pigment is anthocyanin and acid does not release it, acid stabilizes it and makes the red deeper and more permanent.
Don'tNever use hot water on wine or juice in carpet. Carpet is the one surface you cannot flush from the back, so heat has nowhere to push the stain except deeper into the pile and the backing, and it sets the tannin there for good. That is a carpet rule specifically. On a washable shirt you can hold the fabric over a sink and drive the stain out the way it came in, which is why the tomato, coffee and wine recipe for fabric uses hot water and this recipe stays cold. On wool rugs skip the salt entirely, since salt draws moisture and holds it against the fibers, which invites moth damage and dry rot in a wool pile, and skip the peroxide too because it dissolves wool protein. On navy, black, or deep red synthetic carpet, do not touch this without that full 30 minute patch test, since peroxide strips those dyes permanently.
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