Remove Coffee Stains From Your Carpet

First I’d like to congratulate you on trying to get rid of the coffee spills. Because most people just don’t bother. And so the spill’s quickly turn into ugly difficult to remove stains.

Step #1: Act Immediately

The key to successful spill removal is speed of action. The longer you leave a spill, the greater the chance that the spill will turn into a permanent stain. This is because over time the spill will penetrate deep into your carpet fibers and become permanently bonded to the carpet fibers. Making it extremely difficult to remove without the use of specialist treatments. And in some cases it can become impossible to remove.

Step #2: Don’t panic.

Yeah, it’s boring when said like that. But it’s important to stay calm. You need to get hold of a clean terry towel. Yes a terry towel, not a paper towel. This is because a paper towel can start to break down and leave a mess. A terry towel will easily absorb spills and it won’t break up into soggy pieces.

Step #3: Blot, Don’t Rub.

Whenever you’re treating a spill it’s important not to cause any damage to the carpet. Blotting – i.e. pressing the towel on the spill will not cause any damage. Whereas rubbing will abrade and damage most carpets, especially wool. There last thing you want is to remove the spill but leave behind an obvious area of damaged carpet.

If the spill is a big one, then start blotting from the outside of the spill. If the spill is a small one, then completely cover the spill. Keep blotting, using additional towels if you need to until you’ve got out all the liquid you can.

Step #4: Apply White Vinegar

Most carpets are dyed with what are called “acidic dye systems”. Coffee is an acidic coloring. This means that the coffee color can dye the carpet, which means that detergent based cleaners can not remove the color because it has chemically bound to the carpet fibers. So you need a chemical reaction to remove the coffee color.

 White vinegar is a stronger acidic liquid than coffee. So when you apply white vinegar to a a coffee spill, the vinegar will bind to the carpet fibers and dislodge the coffee color.

 All you need to do is spray or gently pour the white vinegar solution onto the stain and leave it for up to 20 minutes to allow the reaction to work.

After that just blot out the white vinegar with a clean towel.

You can repeat the process to remove more staining. This process succeeds for about 80% of normal coffee spills.