Coffee tastes great, doesn’t it? It wakes you up in the morning, keeps you alert during work—and sometimes spills on your carpet! Thankfully, when we got a call from a woman in Auburn Hills, MI who had this exact problem, we knew just how to help her!
Now, imagine yourself in her shoes: You’re sipping a nice cup of hot coffee. You set the cup down—as you always do!—and stand up to grab something off the living room bookshelf. Then… it happens. Your hand knocks into the cup as you stand up, and suddenly you’re nice lightly colored carpet has a nasty coffee stain on it. What would you do? Panic, of course! Coffee stains can be notoriously hard to get out, especially on lightly colored carpet, which is prone to staining anyway.
Now, imagine yourself in our shoes: What would you tell this woman, worried about the stain on her carpet and wanting to know what she has to do to get rid of it? Well, why don’t we tell you what we told her—and help you out in the process!
The first thing you’ll need to do is QUICKLY blot up the coffee with something absorbent, like paper towels. Paper towels are best because you can tell when they are soaked through, meaning you’ll know when to grab a new one. And remember–never rub the coffee! Gently, but quickly, blot up as much as you can.
Now that you’ve blotted what you could, it’s time to take care what has remained behind. First, you’ll need to spray some lukewarm or mildly warm water on the stain. Just spray enough to make it damp, not wet. Then prepare a cleaning solution made from 1/4 tsp. of a non-bleaching detergent or carpet shampoo with 1 liter of water. Make sure to mix it up very well and, if you’ve never used this solution on your carpet before, test it in a hidden spot to make sure it doesn’t hurt your carpet.
Now, apply the solution to the stain using a clean, preferably white, cloth. Gently press the cloth down on the stain WITHOUT rubbing. Lift up the cloth and then spray the stain again with warm water. Blot the stain once more, and then place a clean dishtowel over the damp stain with a heavy object, like a heavy book, over it. Keep this on for at least a few hours or overnight—when you remove the object, the stain should be gone or at least drastically reduced.
