Notice shoe polish stains on your carpet? No need to panic! While this waxy substance is extremely hard to remove from the carpet, it’s still possible to solve your problem. Hiring the services of our carpet cleaning company in Luton would be a smart solution, but if you're a "do it yourselfer" you can try to save your carpet with the help of the following tricks:
1. Scrape up
If there’s a great amount of shoe polish on the carpet, use a plastic spoon or the edge of a plastic knife to scoop or scrape up as much as you can. Use a clean cloth or paper towels to remove the liquid-based shoe polish, changing the cloth or towel as soon as it absorbs the polish. Keep blotting until the stain vanishes.
2. Dab the polish-stained spot
Using a towel or any white cloth, dab the stain with rubbing alcohol, holding the cloth over the area for at least 5 seconds. Examine the fabric to check whether any of the polish has been absorbed. If this is the case, clean the area with a new piece of cloth. Blot with alcohol until the cloth absorbs no more polish.
Use water to dab the area with a damp cloth and then a dry cloth to remove any extra moisture. When dabbing the stains, make sure you use a white cloth. When the cloth is coloured, there’s a risk of the dye leaking onto the carpet.
3. Clean it with soap
You can also try to eliminate shoe polish from your carpet with the help of liquid dish soap. Dip an absorbent white cloth into the solution made from a cup of warm water to a few drops of regular liquid soap.
Dab the stained area with the towel to slightly dampen the carpet fibres without wetting the carpet pad underneath. Wait a few minutes and use a dry white towel to blot the area. Remove the soap by wiping the area clean with a damp cloth.
4. Try vinegar or peroxide solution
If the aforementioned tricks didn’t work, try the vinegar solution. Add one cup of vinegar to four cups of warm water. Wet the stained area with this solution and dab with a clean towel. Blot and air dry.
If the vinegar solution doesn’t help, consider peroxide. Combine 3 parts warm water with one part hydrogen peroxide. Pour a small part of it over the stain and wait for 30 minutes, covering the stained area with a thick white towel. The peroxide method isn’t for coloured carpets, though. It can lighten your carpet or spoil any dye it has.
Cover the stain to block light from achieving the carpet fibres, checking each 15 minutes to be sure the solution hasn’t ruined the carpet. Use a wet white cloth to dab the stained area to eliminate the peroxide. You can also remove any excess moisture with the help of a dry cloth.
The final word
The main rule of removing shoe polish stains is to treat them right away. Avoid rubbing. Otherwise, you’re more likely to spread the shoe polish around. If the tips and tricks mentioned above failed, consider professional carpet cleaning. Not only will you save time and effort, but you’ll also save your carpet.
Do you have other stains that you would like to remove from your carpet nail polish, or paint stains maybe? If so check out our other articles on how to remove these stains.