Got kids or grandkids at home? Of course, you do. Looks like they’re done playing and everywhere seems calm, but it doesn’t end there. The little problem is how to get silly putty out of carpet right?
Silly putty as you know is a very famous toy among kids, they enjoy it a lot as it contributes to their development, most especially their creativity. This toy gives them the ability to mold anything that comes to mind, thereby making them super active.
Our kids’ favorite playground is the living room, and as a parent, this is our center of attraction. We use our favorite carpet to decorate the living room, but that’s a fun spot for our kids. You spot your kid rolling it into a ball and bouncing it on his brother’s head, yea it’s fun.
Unfortunately, the fun ends when kids lose interest and they leave their toys on the carpet, silly putty, in turn, gets stuck on your carpet and that can be a headache. Imagine getting a chewing gum stuck in your hair, that’s the exact scenario.
Materials Needed
Table of Contents
Here is a list of things needed to remove silly putty from your carpet. These are household items so you should have them available in your home. If you don’t, you can get them from any local market near you.
Ice cubes and a plastic bag: To harden the silly putty
Cotton ball: Needed for blotting the surface of the silly putty
Spoon or dull knife: For Scraping
Water: This will be used for cleaning and rinsing
Towel: Needed for cleaning
Other solvents: Vinegar, WD-40 or nail polish remover
Using Ice Cube and Detergent
Step 1: Applying Ice Cube
It’s not news that applying an ice cube to adhesives such as silly putty, weaken its bond. If you don’t know about that till date then that’s good news for you. Applying ice cubes to silly putty works like magic and weaken its bond with the carpet.
Get some ice cube enough to cover the surface of the silly putty on the carpet, put the ice cubes in a plastic bag and place the bag on the silly putty, ensure that the entire surface is covered with ice.
Leave the ice cubes on the silly putty for 2-3 hours, you can as well refill the bag with new ice cubes if the old one melts. This is going to harden the silly putty.
Now you should be able to remove the silly putty from the carpet since they are going to get hardened. Get a knife or spoon, break it into tiny pieces and pull or scrape them off from the carpet.
Step 2: Cleaning the carpet with detergent
After the first step above has been followed, the next step is to take off the remaining strains of putty from the carpet. We’re going to need detergent for this step.
Get a cup of warm water and mix two spoons full of detergent into the cup of warm water. Ensure the detergent doesn’t contain bleaches or any chemicals that could stain your carpet.
Soak a clean towel or cloth into the diluted mixture and use it to blot the remaining silly putty. Ensure to cover the entire surface of the silly putty with detergent.
Let it stay for about 15-20 minutes. After 20 minutes, press down a clean dry towel on the surface of the silly putty to absorb the detergent. Wipe the surface with a damp towel or cloth and the stain will be gone, any leftover will be easier to remove at this stage.
Read: How to get slime out of carpet
Vinegar Approach
Get a cup of warm water and mix it with a spoon full of white vinegar. Apply it on the surface of the silly putty and allow it to sit for 5 minutes. Make sure the diluted solution covers the entire surface of the silly putty. The acid in the vinegar weakens the bond of the silly putty and makes it easier to be scraped off from the carpet.
Get a spoon or knife and remove the silly putty off the carpet, it will be easier this time and stress-free. Repeat the process if the silly putty is not completely removed from the surface of the carpet, this can be due to the vinegar not covering the entire surface of the silly putty and repeating the process will help.
Using WD-40
WD-40 is a universal lubricant that removes grease, grime and more from surfaces, silly putty is not left out when it comes to this. Even silly putty’s manufacturer listed WD-40 as their best and most reliable option for cleanup.
Spray a small amount of WD-40 over the entire surface of the silly putty and ensure it sits for five minutes. This time is enough for the oil in the lubricant to penetrate the silly putty and weaken its bond with the carpet.
Next is to get a spoon or knife and scrape the silly putty off from the carpet. You’ll still have WD-40 on your carpet so you need water and detergent to clean the carpet. Soak a clean towel into the mixture of water and detergent and use it to clean the carpet. You can dry the carpet with a dry towel or a fan faced on the wet surface can come in handy.
Using Nail Polish Remover
Nail polish remover isn’t just limited to removing your nail polish, nail polish remover have a lot of uses and that includes removing silly putty from your carpet. You will need a cotton ball in the approach, soak the cotton ball in the nail polish remover. If you don’t have a nail polish remover, then you can use rubbing alcohol.
Use the soaked cotton ball and blot the surface of the silly putty with the nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol. Make sure you cover the entire surface of the silly putty.
The nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol is going to weaken the bond of the silly putty with the carpet, this will make it easy to scrape off. Get a knife and scrape off the silly putty, trash them as you scrape to avoid them sitting on the surface of the carpet.
If the entire silly putty doesn’t go off, repeat the process, you can also try applying ice cubes as mentioned above to help fasten the process.
Other products that can help remove silly putty off carpet
If you don’t have any of the products mentioned above, such as WD-40 or white vinegar, then you can consider using these products below as they have the same properties as Vinegar or WD-40 as well as a nail polish remover.
Goof-Off
Goo-Gone
Duck adhesive Remover
KrudKutter
Follow the same procedure mentioned above when applying them on the surface of the silly putty and your carpet will be clean in no time.
Don’t also forget to steam clean your carpet once in a while as this will help keep your carpet free, dust mite free and germs free. For more information check out how to steam clean a carpet
Conclusion
The approach mentioned above have covered how to get silly putty out of carpet, if you follow them accordingly, your carpet will be as good as new. After reading this article, you should feel like an expert. Next time you’re looking for ways on how to remove silly putty from your carpet, it will be a no brainer since you know where to find a direct guide. Help out a friend today and share this post, you could be a lifesaver. You might want to check out how to get blood out of carpet.
Over to you, have you used a different method to remove silly putty from your carpet, how do you get silly putty out of your carpet? Do let us know in the comments below.
