After the festive celebrations, it’s almost inevitable that your carpet has suffered a spill or two. From wine and food to plain old dirt, these mishaps are bound to leave a mark.
While traditional cleaning hacks like lemon juice, vinegar, and baking soda are often celebrated as top-notch homemade solutions for tackling stubborn stains, there’s another unexpected household item that can come to the rescue. Turn away from your kitchen pantry and consider your liquor cabinet instead.
Vodka, often a mainstay in home bars, is being recommended as an effective remedy for cleaning carpet stains, reports the Express. If you’ve got leftover vodka that you’re not planning to drink anytime soon, it might just become your secret weapon for DIY cleaning concoctions.
Dallas Maids, a professional cleaning service, suggests using vodka, along with rubbing alcohol or even white wine, for getting rid of stains. Greg Shephard, the owner of Dallas Maids, said: “First blot the stain. Second, pour any type of clear alcohol (rubbing alcohol, vodka, white wine) onto the stain. This is better than any over-the-counter product.”
Appliance experts at Shark concur with this approach. They recommend keeping a spray bottle filled with a vodka and water mixture on hand for dealing with stains.
Their advice for particularly tough stains, like those from grease or blood, is to use undiluted vodka. Allow it to sit for a few hours before blotting it away with a microfibre cloth.
Wonder How To highlights that alcohol-based cleaners are top-notch for their ability to slice through grease, outperforming other cleaning agents. Yet, caution is advised when using vodka for cleaning purposes.
House Digest warns that the “motion of rubbing” vodka on stains might actually push them further into carpet fibres. Their advice? Place a vodka-drenched cloth over the stain and leave it be for a few minutes to do its magic.
Once done, lift off the cloth and allow the area to air dry.