I have been working a big project for the last 9 days. I worked on it little bits at a time and it has been a process, let me tell you. But today, I declared completion and success.
The project started on my birthday when I discovered, about 5 minutes before my parents picked me up for lunch, that a blue ink pen had leaked onto the family room carpet. An earlier, younger version of me might have just pulled the couch over the stain and called it good. But, now with kids being grown and not needing constant attention, I had no excuse for not having time to deal with the ink. I initially tried to dab the ink up with a damp washcloth, but all that did was bring the ink up from deep down in the recesses of the carpet. So it went from being just a barely visible blue streak to a royal blue, quarter-sized very visible spot on the carpet. Not good.
Next I called a friend and asked for her suggestion. She has this stuff called "absorb it" that she uses for her carpets. She was nice enough to give me some. I followed her directions and wetted the area around the stain with water before applying the powder. You want to know what happened? That ink stain went from being quarter-sized to small dinner plate-sized. Oh yes it did. I am not even kidding. Continuing on...I sprinkled the powder over the newly enlarged stain, placed a towel over the powder and let it sit for a couple of days, per my friend's instructions. Two days later I removed the towel, vacuumed up the now dried powder and Viola! A Seahawk blue small dinner plate-sized stain on my carpet.
Yes, of course, I am freaking out at this time because now there is no way possible to just pull the couch over the stain. So I do what anyone does now and I Googled "how to remove ink from carpet". Almost every suggestion said hairspray. No way was a I spraying hairspray on the carpet. I didn't want the sticky residue of hairspray left on the carpet.
So I used the next best thing
Rubbing alcohol.
Over the course of a week I went through 3/4 of a bottle of rubbing alcohol to try and lift the stain. Oh and white vinegar. Can't forget that.
Here is how the stain was finally lifted (and the carpet survived)
I don't have any spray/mister bottles so I would lay a white towel over the stain and then pour the alcohol directly over the stain. I would let the alcohol seep through and onto the carpet for about 10 to 15 minutes. Then I would spend the next 30-45 minutes dabbing at the stain, always working from the outside towards the center and in an up-down dabbing motion.
Let that dry completely, usually overnight and then rinse with warm water. Soak up water with towel. Repeat the dabbing process because the ink seemed to be coming up pretty good. Keep dabbing until no more ink comes up. Then I let the carpet dry again overnight to see where things were at.
I used this method for about two days before I added in the next step...white vinegar.
So alcohol, dab, let dry. White vinegar, dab, rinse with warm water. Soak up with towel.
Repeat the next day. And the next day. And the next day.
On day 7 I had the brilliant idea to borrow my MIL's carpet cleaner. I only used this for the rinsing and sucking up the water part.
Adding the carpet cleaner the process went like this...
Alcohol, dab, dab, dab. Let dry completely.
White vinegar, dab, dab, dab.
Rinse with warm water and suck up water with the carpet cleaner.
And today, on day 9, TA DA! No more blue ink stain on the carpet!
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