If you’re searching for how to get slime out of carpet then I’m assuming your kids have made a big mess from their fun time. Yes, slime is fun to play with but it isn’t when it comes to getting it off your carpet.
Although playing with slime can be beneficial to our fun time, it can pose as a challenge if it spills on our carpet; more challenging if the slime dries up on the carpet.
Similar to removing gak from carpet, slime can be removed with the use of vinegar, WD40, baking soda, club soda, warm water, rubbing alcohol, citrus solvent, liquid dish soap or hydrogen peroxide, depending on the degree of stain on the carpet.
Let us look deeper into how to get slime out of carpet. It will be good to know the types of slime and what slime is made up of, to have a better view of how to get slime out of carpet.
Types of Slime
Table of Contents
- 1 Types of Slime
- 2 Pre-cleaning Procedure for Carpet Stained with Slime
- 3 How to Get Slime out of Carpet Using Vinegar
- 4 Using Vinegar and Baking Soda
- 5 Tackling Remnant Stains
- 6 How to Get Slime out of Carpet Without Vinegar
- 7 How to Get Rid of Stubborn Glitter Slime on your Carpet
- 8 How to Remove Dry Slime from Carpet
- 9 Conclusion
Borax-free Slime
Borax is a cleaning agent. Some parents don’t like borax because of its harshness on the skin, so they don’t make slime with it. On the other hand, some parents are okay with borax, and they make slime with it.
Cleaning Slime
This type of slime works the way lint brush does; it gets dirt out of keyboard and other electronics. It is a thicker type of slime.
Fluffy Slime
When you hold this type of slime, it feels like you are holding a marshmallow. Children and adults find it fun to squish; hence, it is one of the most favorite types of slime for children, especially young children.
Glitter Slime or Unicorn Slime
This is popular among young girls. It is another favorite type for kids. This slime uses the basic slime recipe, with glitters added.
Glow-in-the-dark Slime
Kids make this type of slime at home with non-toxic ingredients. As the name suggests, the slime is made to glow in the dark.
Popping Slime
It is typically made of some types of beads and Styrofoam pellets and then mixed with regular slime.
Pre-cleaning Procedure for Carpet Stained with Slime
Immediately you notice a slime stain on your carpet (no matter how small), swing to action as soon as possible. This pre-cleaning procedure is necessary to successfully get slime out of your carpet.
When you collect as much of the slime spill, you will have less cleaning work to do later. The most appropriate tool for this pre-cleaning procedure is either a knife or a spoon.
While using the knife or spoon to remove the slime, be careful to not spread the slime and create a bigger stain. If the slime is still wet, a baby wipes or paper towel can be used for the cleaning.
How to Get Slime out of Carpet Using Vinegar
Step 1
Firstly, when the slime is still wet, use your hand to manually remove as much slime as possible.
Step 2
Use your vacuum cleaner on the carpet. Move the vacuum cleaner in many directions to remove the excess slime. Before you do this, make sure that the slime is already dry; if it is still wet, it will eventually clog the vacuum cleaner. If the slime is not yet dry, skip this step and move to the next step.
Step 3
Prepare your vinegar. Mix one-part warm water and two-part white vinegar in a spray bottle. Shake the bottle well and spray the mixture exactly on the spot that has the slime. Allow the mixture to stay on the carpet for a few minutes or until you observe that the slime is already dissolving.
Step 4
Use a paper towel to wipe the slime and remove it with your hand. If slime remains on the carpet, spray more vinegar and wait again before wiping the slime with the paper towel. Repeat this process until the slime is completely wiped out of the carpet.
Using Vinegar and Baking Soda
Vinegar and baking soda are some of the most favorite home cleaning products people use. Vinegar contains acetic acid and eats up stains and grime. Combining vinegar with baking soda, you will have a powerful reaction that you can use to get slime stain out of your carpet.
You will need a blunt scraping tool, a vacuum cleaner, 2 cups of white vinegar, 1 cup of baking soda, sponge, a bucket of warm water and dry cloth. In this procedure, we assume that the slime is dry. The steps to take are listed below:
- Break up any large piece of slime with the blunt scraping tool.
- Vacuum the area until all slime as possible is gone.
- Sprinkle baking soda on the stained area.
- Pour vinegar into a spray bottle, and spray vinegar on the stain until the area is wet and the baking soda reacts with the vinegar.
- Allow the mixture to stay on the slime stain for a minimum of five minutes, and then blot the stain with the sponge.
- Continue blotting until the stain is out.
- Clean the sponge by soaking it in water. Use the sponge to clean any remnant vinegar and baking soda on the carpet. Rinse the sponge.
- Dry the area with the dry cloth.
Tackling Remnant Stains
After removing the slime from the carpet, you might notice that the slime color is still showing on the carpet. This is especially possible when the slime is blue, black or green. There are different ways to remove the remnant color/stain of both store-bought slime and home-made slime from your carpet.
How to Remove Remnant Color/Stain Left By Store-Bought Slime
Make use of an all-purpose carpet cleaning detergent to spot-treat the remnant stain. Spray the color-stained spot with the detergent and wait for a few minutes. Use a microfiber cloth to wipe the stain until it is fully out.
How to remove remnant color/stain left by home-made slime
When the slime is home-made and the color is gotten by food coloring, the best way to get rid of the remnant stain is to treat the stain with home-made detergent. The steps to take are highlighted below:
Step 1
Create a mixture of dishwashing liquid with a tablespoon of vinegar and warm water. If you used a bright food coloring like red for making the slime, replace the vinegar with ammonia.
Step 2
Treat the stain by applying the mixture to it. Leave it for five minutes.
Step 3
Gently use a microfiber cloth to wipe the stained spot. The cloth you are using should be stained with the color.
Switch different sides of the cloth to prevent spreading the color back on the carpet. Keep on blotting until there’s no more color leftover on the carpet.
How to Get Slime out of Carpet Without Vinegar
It is possible to get slime out of your carpet without using vinegar. Although vinegar is a popular household cleaning agent, there are other cleaning agents like rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol), WD40, warm water, citrus solvent, club soda, hydrogen peroxide, and liquid dish soap.
I’ve used hydrogen peroxide to remove turmeric stains from carpet and it works efficiently
How to Get Rid of Stubborn Glitter Slime on your Carpet
Most of the well-known slimes in homes contain glitter. Stain on your carpet from glitter slime can be very challenging to eliminate. After removing the slime, wait for the carpet to dry out.
Start vacuuming the carpet. Move over the area several times with the vacuum cleaner. You are doing this because glitter has tiny particles that are very sticky.
You can as well use sticky or masking tape. Wrap it around your hand with the sticky part facing out. Use your hand to lightly touch the area that has glitter. Change the sticky tape if need be and repeat the process until there is no glitter left on the carpet.
How to Remove Dry Slime from Carpet
Sometimes you don’t immediately notice slime stains on your carpet until they’ve dried up. Not to worry, there are many steps explained below that you can take to get your carpet back to its brilliant state.
One of the methods you can use to get dried slime out of your carpet is to apply ice on the slime stain.
Drop ice on the dried slime and wait for 10 minutes or until the slime is frozen. When the slime is frozen, you can remove the ice and then break the slime easily.
Proceed with vacuuming the broken pieces of the frozen slime. Make sure that the slime has dried up before you apply ice and then use the vacuum to suck the broken frozen pieces.
This approach can also be taken for removing silly putty out of carpet since its also in the class of slimes. If you use a vacuum cleaner to suck wet unfrozen slime, the machine will get clogged.
So of all methods to remove slime from carpet explained below, some employ vacuum cleaners; ensure the slime has dried up before using a vacuum cleaner. Also don’t attempt to wash slime, no matter how small, down the drain.
Using Hot Water
Sometimes, just hot water can get slime out of your carpet. Although slime is not water-soluble, you can successfully get rid of slime on your carpet by scraping and using the old-fashioned method of rinsing.
You can make use of water as a high-traffic carpet cleaner daily because it won’t do any harm to your carpet. The tools needed for this method are butter knife or any blunt scraping tool, a bucket of warm water, a vacuum cleaner, a sponge and dry cloth.
Gently use a butter knife to break up and scrape out large pieces of slime from your carpet. Lift out lose chunks of slime by vacuuming the carpet a few times. After you have removed enough slime as possible with the knife, soak the sponge in the warm water then blot the stain.
The heat from the water will loosen the remnant slime. Once the water has stayed on the carpet for a minute, wipe the carpet with the dry cloth until the water is gone.
Using Club Soda
This method is similar to using warm water; however, club soda has a higher cleaning power than warm water. Club soda contains carbonic acid. Carbonic acid serves as a mild cleaning agent and eats away slime stains on carpet, thereby making the carpet very easy to clean.
If hot water does not get slime out of carpet, club soda should be your next point of call.
Things needed for this method of cleaning include blunt scraping tool, vacuum cleaner, three cups of club soda, dry cloth and spray bottle.
Use the scraping tool to break the slime apart, and then vacuum the carpet to remove excess slime. Keep on scraping and vacuuming until you cannot remove the debris/slime anymore.
Fill the spray bottle with club soda and spray the slime stain completely and thoroughly. Allow the club soda to stay on the carpet stain for at least six minutes. Thereafter, blot the area with a dry cloth.
Using Isopropyl Alcohol
Isopropyl alcohol is another good cleaning agent, among other uses of isopropyl alcohol you can use it to get slime stain out of your carpet. It is also called rubbing alcohol.
Rubbing alcohol can be either ethanol-based liquids, even if it is ethanol-based or isopropyl alcohol, it is tagged as undrinkable due to the bitterants added.
Precautions to take when using rubbing alcohol on your carpet
- Before using rubbing alcohol on your carpet, test it on an inconspicuous part of the carpet to see if the carpet maintains its color, before moving to the stained area.
- Do not allow the rubbing alcohol to come in contact with the carpet backing if not, it will get damaged.
To get slime out of carpet using rubbing alcohol, you need 2 cups of rubbing alcohol, a vacuum cleaner, a sponge and a blunt scraper.
Scrape and vacuum away large dirt until you cannot get any more slime out of your carpet. Thereafter, wet the sponge with undiluted rubbing alcohol and gently blot the stain.
Clean the sponge as appropriate and repeat the process until the slime stain is completely out of the carpet. Open windows for cross-ventilation and air-drying of the carpet area before you can walk on it.
Using Hydrogen Peroxide
Another cleaning agent that can get slime out of carpet is hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide attacks grime and stains with its frothiness, breaks down slime into parts and makes it easy to get rid of slime on carpets. Hydrogen peroxide can bleach carpets!
Be careful to first apply it on an inconspicuous part of your carpet to check if it bleaches the carpet, before moving to the stained area. Having said this, it is recommended that you use hydrogen peroxide only on light-colored carpets.
To proceed with cleaning, get a scraping tool, sponge, dry cloth, vacuum cleaner, warm water, a spray bottle, and hydrogen peroxide. The steps to take are listed below:
1. Remove the slime from your carpet using a scraper. Vacuum the debris gathered on the carpet.
2. Mix 3 tablespoons of the hydrogen peroxide solution with half a cup of warm water. Pour the solution in a spray bottle, and then spray the solution on the stain until it gets wet.
3. Allow the solution to stay for 5 minutes or more on the stain.
4. Blot the area using a sponge. Repeat this until all the stain is out.
5. Use the dry cloth to dry out the area
Read: 5 tips for cleaning floor with hydrogen peroxide
Using Citrus Solvent
A citrus solvent can be used to get slime out of carpet because it cuts through slime stains. Compared to other powerful commercial household cleaning agents, a citrus solvent is less likely to damage your carpet.
Nevertheless, before applying citrus solvent on your carpet, test it on an inconspicuous part of the carpet to be sure it doesn’t change the color of your carpet. Also, don’t forget to put on gloves when you are using the citrus solvent to clean your carpet.
To successfully clean your carpet with citrus solvent, you need to get a bucket of water, scraping tool, dry cloth, sponge and a vacuum cleaner. Thereafter, take the steps below:
1. Use the scraping tool to break up the dried slime into pieces.
2. Vacuum up the loose pieces of slime.
3. Use the sponge to apply the diluted citrus solvent on the slime stain.
4. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on the recommended time for the citrus solvent to stay on the stain before blotting the stain with a sponge.
5. After blotting the stain with a sponge, soak the sponge in water and rinse it.
6. Clean up the remnant solvent and dry the carpet with a cloth/towel.
Using Liquid Dish Soap
Liquid dish soap can generally be used to get stains out of carpet, it can also be used to get slime out of carpet. You will need a bucket of warm water, dry cloth, a scraping tool, and a vacuum cleaner.
Start by using the scraping tool to scrape off as much slime as possible, and then vacuum the debris.
Mix one teaspoon of unscented and clear liquid dish soap with two cups of warm water. Pour the mixture into a spray bottle. Spray the mixture on the slime stain.
Wipe the stain using a sponge, and repeat the process until the stain is off the carpet. Thereafter, rinse the sponge well, soak it in clean water, and then dap at the spot to remove remnant soapy water. Finally, dry the carpet using a dry and clean cloth.
For a good finish, steam cleaning your carpet after you’ve successfully taken off the stain from the carpet.
Conclusion
As much as your children want to have fun with slime, you must also be at alert if the slime spills on your carpet. You’ve learned various methods of how to get slime out of carpet, so you shouldn’t worry anytime slime gets on your carpet.
On very dry and stubborn cases of slime stain, you can replace vinegar with WD40 and follow the same guidelines as explained above. Following the steps explained in this article, you should be guaranteed a good looking carpet all year round!
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