The Spotlight: Keeping Ketchup Off the Carpet
From a pickled fish sauce in China to a mushroom and shallot concoction in England, Ketchup went through a lot of changes before it became the sweet, tomato-based condiment of today.
Fascinating as that history is, it will probably be the last thing on your mind the next time someone spills ketchup all over your carpets. No, you’ll be focused on cleaning your carpets – and here’s how you can do just that:
Step 1
Using a spoon, scoop as much of the ketchup out of the carpet as you can. Take care when you’re doing this – you don’t want to accidentally spread the ketchup around even more.
Step 2
Pour two cups of cold water in a bowl and mix in a tablespoon of liquid dish soap.
Step 3
Soak a towel in this solution and then wring it out. You want the towel to be damp but not dripping.
Step 4
Work at the spot with the towel. Make sure you don’t scrub the spot – that can just spread the spill around – but instead blot at it from the outside edge toward the center. Repeat this process until the spot is gone.
Step 5
Once no more of the spot is coming up, spray the area with water and blot it dry with a clean towel.
Step 6
If the carpet is still pretty wet, try to speed up the drying process. If you have a powerful fan, aim it at the spot and let it run until the carpet is dry. If you don’t have a fan, lay a towel over the area, then a plastic bag on top of that, and follow this up with a heavy weight. Let this sit for about 8 hours to absorb as much water as possible.
And that’s it! If you act fast and clean thoroughly, you should be able to save your carpets from that tricky ketchup spill. If you can’t quite make the stain budge (or someone spilled tons of it), the stain removal masters at Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning are here for you. We can tackle all sorts of tough spots and get your carpets looking grand again.
To schedule a cleaning, just use our handy Online Scheduler or call us at 1-877-OXIFRESH. We look forward to serving you soon!
Thanks to the team at WikiHow and Taylor at Stain Removal 101 for the great tips. Thanks to Steven Depolo for the image “Ketchup Cup Macro January 14, 20113.” It is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
