Neat New Trick

 Tuesday evening, I found a neat little tip.

We have these mysterious little stain spots on our carpet in places. They don't like to come up even with the carpet shampooer. And if they do come up then, it seems like they are right back there where they were in a day or two. It's very frustrating since we've only lived in this (newly built) house for a year and 7 months.

We haven't yet figured out who it is that is doing it either. We both think it might be Rugrat or the dog. However, Rugrat is only allowed to bring dry foods (like crackers or dry cereal) into the living room -- nothing wet. And the dog, well, he values his life a little more highly than that (plus it doesn't really look like any of his previous little presents).

It actually looks a lot like a drink splattered. Here's one of those spots now:

The fact that it doesn't like to come up with the shampooer is weird to me though if its a drink splatter. Oh, well. We'll figure it out. Until then, I saw this neat little post over here. 

I decided to give it a try although I figured it wouldn't work. After all, we used a shampooer. But I had what I needed on hand so why not? Here it is in action.

I seriously could not believe it. They haven't popped back up yet after a day either. Hmmm. Methinks we're on to something.

So after about 10 minutes, including making two short little videos like the one above, this is that piece of carpet (from a different angle -- Rugrat was curious and getting in my light).

Very cool, huh! And much better. So far, I've attacked 2 spots like the one above and another less concentrated one (yes, we are very hard on our carpets but you heard I shampoo them regularly). With the same results.

So what's in this magical solution? If you clicked the link, you already know. But I'll tell you anyway.

Add to 1 cup of peroxide (like in your medicine cabinet next to the rubbing alcohol) approximately 4 drops of Dawn dishwashing liquid (the blue kind). Use an old toothbrush to scrub the spot with it and blot with a clean towel.

Yep. That's it. You might want to wear a glove if you have sensitive skin or you could end up with some white spots on your fingers. They won't hurt you and they'll go away in an hour or two. But, you know, if you're going somewhere, it might be a good idea to avoid it.

Note:  I was concerned about peroxide possibly bleaching the carpet. It didn't do anything to ours but if you have dark carpet you may want to test it someplace that doesn't show first.