Shortly after hubby and I were married, I created what looked like a crime scene in our white-carpeted bathroom after a dyeing accident gone wrong. We never did get the carpet clean.

Well tonight I had another accident (different apartment), this time with a quart of Cherry limeade Crystal Light on light beige carpeting in my craft room.

The cup got knocked over and all 32 ounces of bright red liquid spattered over about a 5 foot circle of carpeting and wall.

It doesn't look as bloody as the red-brown dye (so it's more cartoon crime scene than real crime scene... this time).

I sopped up the mess with a thick towel, then scrubbed the carpet with warm water (several changes of water in the bucket) until my white washclothes couldn't pick up any more color from the carpet.

I was on my hands and knees scrubbing (powered by adrenaline), but with my arthritis and fibromyalgia, I imagine I will be unable to move tomorrow. I'm already starting to feel pretty damned sore.


Hubby came home mid-mess and I warned him we had another "crime scene" (he's teased me about the last one for the past ten years). He came into the craft roon and saw me on the floor sopping up the huge red mess and started laughing, which got me laughing.

I got it looking better than I expected, but I'm sure daylight will reveal a big pinkish beige stain.

Anyone have any suggestions regarding carpet cleaners that are especially good on red stains?

I've had luck with 409, or hydrogen peroxide with some dish detergent. Hope it works for you!

My "go to" product is the spray Spot Shot - You spray it on and blot (not rub) it out with old towels - paper towels don't do as good a job. It might look worse before it looks better, but DH had a knife accident sharpening one and ours REALLY did look like a crime scene with blood dripped all over and that took it out. I use it for pet stains, too. Side note - it might look cleaner in those spots than the rest of the carpet; I had to clean my carpets after using it when he baptized the carpet red, but it all looks fine now. GOOD LUCK.

Did you say you have carpet in the bathroom? I've never heard of carpeting in a bathroom, how odd. Pull it up, lay down some tiles and voila. I can imagine that with humidity, moisture, hair, leaks etc that a bathroom carpet is not sanitary.

Call a professional to remove those stains, they have their ways

No, I said the current stain is in my craftroom, the previous stain was in an old apartment's white-carpeted apartment, our first together (and hubby's before we met). Tearing up the carpet wasn't an option, because we didn't own the property.

We're in a different apartment now (the kitchen, bathroom, and doorway area are all stone tile, anthe apartment is carpeted in pale beige), but it's still a rental.

If it were ours to renovate, I would pull up all of the carpeting and lay down the same tile used in the kitchen, bathroom, and doorway. The floors would be frigid in winter, but I'd still rather have the tile - easier to clean and easier on my allergies than carpeting and more durable and less easily damaged or slippery than vinyl, ceramic, or wood.

In general, I am not fond of any carpeting. Our vacuum cleaner has a HEPA filter and hubby does all the vacuuming while I'm in another room. If we had tile everywhere, the allergens would be easier toremove. The craftroom would also be much easier to maintain.

We have even considered asking the landlord if we could replace the carpet at our own cost, but we'll broach that subject when we have the funds to do so.

I don't like carpeting too, for all those reasons - allergens, hard to clean, etc....we did replace most of the carpeting in our home with hardwood flooring a few years ago and when we ripped out the living room/hallway carpeting you could see that the current carpet had been laid over the original matting underneath....you could still see the fibers from the older carpet that was probably installed when they built the house (tacky 70s style carpet)....when we pried up the original matting there was dust and other "stuff" everywhere and when we swept it all up there was just PILES of "stuff" - I imagine it was dust, skin, allergens and all kinds of gross stuff that sinks to the bottom of carpet...it was awful

I'm not sure if it will work on red stains, but my hubby recently cleaned up dog puke with Blue Coral Upholstery Cleaner and it cleaned our carpet really well. He buys it at Advanced Auto. It's made for cleaning car seats/carpet. I was really impressed with it, so might be worth a shot.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. As it turns out water and a bit of carpet shampoo did fine. The spot does look cleaner than the rest of the carpet, but we're planning on getting the carpets professionally cleaned in Spring anyway.

What a relief!

I second the recommendation for Spot Shot. Best.

Resolve. If it can deal with port and red wine on my carpet, you are laughing.