Here’s How to Get Slime Out of Carpet
Removing Slime From Your Carpet Safely Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult
Uh oh. Slime! Everywhere we look, kids are obsessed with Slime.
It’s fun the play with, we don’t blame them. But now, as a parent, it’s a little bit less fun because the stuff gets everywhere and you’ve got to figure out how to clean it up!
Is Slime Your Worst Carpet Cleaning Nightmare!?!
Someone spilled some slime on your carpet and now you’ve got to figure out how to remove it. Don’t fret, it’s probably not as big a deal as you think. You’re not going to have to rip up your carpet. Even if you need to remove dried slime from the carpet, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Let’s First Dissect What Slime is Made From
Slime is typically going to be a mixture of:
- glue
- food coloring
- water
- starch
- glitter
Fun to play with, not as fun to clean up. The glue is going to bond to your carpet fibers and food coloring is going to initially stain them. So, you need something that’s going to break down the glue, first and foremost, as well as to remove the pigment from the food coloring.
First Things First, Let’s Tackle the Glue
You’ve got a lot of choices when it comes to solvents (which is what you’re going to need to break down the adhesive glue). You could use vinegar, rubbing alcohol, Goo Gone (or something like it), etc.
There are plenty of other things that would dissolve the glue as well that you DON’T want to use. Like gasoline or WD40. We recommend vinegar as a safe solvent that’s easy to work with. It won’t potentially damage your carpet backing (like a Goo Gone type product could).
Besides, you probably already have it in your kitchen. Before we move on… a quick but important tip on why you don’t want to use WD40!
A Quick Note On WD40 Before We Move On
WD40 seems to be all the rage for the magic all-in-one carpet cleaning miracle if you ask Pinterest or a number of online blogs. Take it from a carpet cleaner; you don’t want to put this stuff on your carpet!
We get calls all the time from people who “cleaned their carpet spots with WD40 and now have a stain.
Here’s the issue: while WD40 does a good job of removing some spots, it leaves behind an oily residue (the SDS sheets show that approximately 25% of the makeup of WD40 is mineral oil).
This residue is going to attract dirt like a magnet and your “clean” spot is now going to be a permanent dirt magnet until someone professionally cleans the very hard to rinse oil spot. Choose a solvent without oil in it to clean your carpet spots, or you’re going to just trade one problem for another!
Step by Step Guide on How to Get Slime Out of Carpet
Step 1 – Carefully Scrape Away Any Excess Slime
Take a spoon or similar blunt edged scraper and remove as much of the slime as you can. Be careful not to be too aggressive so as not to rip up the carpet fibers while you’re working the slime stains.
Step 2 – Apply Vinegar
Take your standard white vinegar out of the cabinet. Pour vinegar liberally on to the remaining slime spot. You don’t need to drown it, but we’re not talking a few drops here either.
Your goal is to remove the slime from the carpet, so get after it! Allow the vinegar do it’s thing for 3 minutes or so.
Step 3 – Agitate and Remove Excess With a Scraper… A Spoon Works Well
Whenever you’re dealing with carpet spotting and stains, you don’t want to aggressively scrub the carpet. Your goal is to gently remove the substance from the carpet. This time is no different.
Using a metal spoon, gently scrape the vinegar slime mixture to one side of the slime spot. Pick up the slop and wipe it off on a paper towel or white rag. Repeat until you’ve picked it all up.
Step 4 – Rinse With Hot Water
Apply hot water to the slimed area and blot up the remainder. Use a clean white towel or even paper towels. Rinse thoroughly. Repeat as needed.
Step 5 – Repeat if Needed
If there is still slime after the rinsing, go back to step one and repeat the process again.
Step 6 – Tackle the Food Coloring (if Needed)
If color remains on the carpet from the food coloring, you have to tackle that. If there isn’t any color left, skip this step.
What to Use to Remove Color
Option 1
If you’ve got some of our Home Pro Spotter that we hand out to our customers for free, this is the right stuff to use. As an alternative, Spray and walk away works pretty well too. Apply the solution, agitate into the carpet, blot with a towel and rinse. Blot the rinsed area with a clean towel, then put a fan next to it to help the spot dry.
Option 2
If you don’t have Home Pro Spotter and don’t want to buy it/wait for it to arrive, you can use your standard carpet cleaning solution spray available at the store. Resolve, Oxi, whatever… with this one caveat… RINSE IT OUT.
As much as these companies claim their solution will not bleach out your carpet or leave a residue, if you leave the solution in your carpet without thoroughly rinsing it out, it may. We’ve seen it. Frequently.
Also, when you do go to clean your carpets, that dried residue foams like crazy and your carpet cleaning company is going to be really annoyed. So when you use these products, apply, blot, and then rinse it out a few times.
If you’ve got a little handheld spot cleaner… We like this one:
this little machine is a great choice for this project and for many other spot removal efforts. If this doesn’t work, jump to the next step. If not, go to step 8.
Step 7 – Try Rubbing Alcohol if Color Remains
Try rubbing alcohol. Use a small amount of rubbing alcohol on a cloth. Rinse with water after each application of alcohol.
Step 8 – Give Hydrogen Peroxide a Shot
If the alcohol doesn’t work, you can try hydrogen peroxide. Be very careful and spot test a discrete area for colorfastness. Hydrogen peroxide can occasionally bleach certain carpets.
If you’ve got a wool carpet, for example, don’t even think about putting peroxide or anything “oxi” on it. Apply the hydrogen peroxide and let it sit for 10 minutes or so. Blot with a clean cloth. Rinse with warm water, repeat.
Step 9 – Give that Former Slime Spot Some Air
Set up a fan next to the area you cleaned to help it dry. Leave it there for 12-24 hours. There’s no point in leaving your carpet and carpet pad soaked for days. How long does it take for carpets to dry depends on many factors, but a fan certainly helps get things drying faster.
Besides, you don’t want to invite mildew or mold, right? Then you’d no longer be asking how to remove slime from carpet and instead you’d be asking how to remove mold from your carpet! You’d also risk dealing with musty, smelly carpet odors.
None of This Worked / It Sort of Worked But I Still Need Help!
If this process didn’t work, it’s probably time to call in a professional carpet cleaning company. Likely this won’t be necessary, but who knows… Maybe your kid made slime with construction adhesive or something instead of Elmers Glue (somewhat kidding here, but we’ve seen some crazy things so I won’t count this out!).
Professional Carpet Cleaners have more tools and solutions at their disposal than you could ever imagine. We’ve been able to remove spots and stains from carpet that people never thought would come out.
Furthermore, for those things that can’t come out, we can always cut out damaged areas and perform a carpet repair using carpet from another area or a spare piece of carpet. Carpet repairs are nearly invisible and will no doubt look far better than a bunch of glittery, colored glue spots all over your carpet.
Or Call: 1-720-233-0761
About MSS Cleaning
MSS Cleaning is a team of carpet experts based out of Denver Colorado. We offer carpet cleaning, carpet repair and carpet stretching, tile and grout and upholstery cleaning.
We service approximately a 25 mile area around Denver, providing carpet cleaning to Littleton, Parker, Castle Pines and across the entire Denver area. If you have questions, or if we can help in any way, please don’t hesitate to reach out or to book a carpet cleaning or repair service.