Remove the Holiday Stains from Your Home with Ease

After two long months, the holidays have finally come to an end. You’ve said goodbye to your guests, stowed away your decorations, and moved your Christmas tree to the curb – what else could there be to handle? Unfortunately, while you may have picked up the holidays for the year, the stains the season has left behind could still be causing a problem.

Anything from increased foot-traffic to dropped food and spilled drinks may have left your home’s carpet and upholstery in a less than tidy state. The holidays can leave behind some of the toughest stains to face, but with these simple steps, you can banish them until next season.

Oh – Christmas Tree

Your once beautiful spruce may be kicked to the curb, but its sap is the gift that keeps on giving. Even once your tree is gone, the sap that remains can put your home’s carpet in a sticky situation.

In order to remove tree sap effectively, it is best to first allow the sap to dry. Once the sap is dry, you can manually pick the material out of your carpet’s fibers. Once the solid sap is removed, you can remove the remaining stain and residue. The remaining residue can be easily treated by blotting the stain with warm water and dish-washing fluid until the stain is removed.

The Gravy Train has no Breaks

Gravy is the perfect sidekick to all our holiday favorites from the juicy turkey to the creamy mashed potatoes. However, gravy is not the best companion for your home’s carpeting. One holiday dinner can turn your home into a huge gravy-covered mess.

It is best to handle a gravy stain when it is fresh, and your first step should be to scrape off excess gravy from the stain’s surface. Once the excess gravy has been removed, sprinkle the stain with either cornstarch or baking soda and let it sit for about 15 minutes or until it absorbs the grease.

Once the time has passed, vacuum the baking soda or cornstarch up. Once vacuumed, with a clean cloth, dab the stain with a dry-cleaning solvent of your choice and blot the stain until the solvent is absorbed. You may repeat this until the stain is removed.

Clink, Clink

Whether it is accompanying a Christmas feast or a New Year’s toast, a glass of wine is bound to have made an appearance in your home this holiday season. Spilled drinks are inevitable but can become a big issue when the drink spilled is a glass of red wine.

Attend to a wine stain as soon as possible by first blotting the spilled wine with a clean cloth to remove any excess liquid. By doing this, you will keep the stain from spreading further and soaking deeper into your carpet. After blotting, combine vinegar, warm water, and dishwashing fluid to create a wine-removing solvent. Blot the stain again with this mixture until the stain is removed.

Happy Guests, Muddy Shoes

Your holiday guests may be gone for another year, but sometimes they leave behind a lasting gift – muddy shoe-prints. The holidays bring increased foot-traffic to your home, and this increased foot-traffic brings both mud and debris to your carpet.

When you find mud on your carpet, begin cleaning by scraping off dried mud and vacuuming the excess. Afterwards, apply a dry-cleaning solvent and blot the stain until it is removed. If this doesn’t fully remove the stain, you can apply hydrogen peroxide to the stained area as well. Let the peroxide sit for an hour before returning and blotting the stain until it is removed.

With the holidays coming to a close, you can finally banish the stains your carpet accumulated this season. If the holidays have worn you out and the stains seem overwhelming, a professional cleaning company may be the solution for you. With years of training and high-grade cleaning tools, D’s Cleaning Service can take the hassle out of the post-holiday clean-up.