We all know how much of a mess toddlers can make, but most messes are usually pretty easy to clean up with a paper towel, household cleaning products and elbow grease. However, there are times when toddlers can create some severe clean-up conundrums, especially when you combine them with slime and carpet. If you find yourself in this unfortunate mess, don’t worry because removing slime from a carpet is not that difficult. Read on to find out how to remove slime from carpet!
In order to effectively remove slime from carpet, you can follow a general guideline of steps that involve:
- Removing any excess slime
- Applying a cleaning solution and scrubbing
- Removing more slime
- Drying the carpet
The most important things you need to do are act quickly and choose the right solution for your mess. The longer you let the slime settle in the carpet fibers, the harder it will be to remove, so you really need to be on top things if you want to remove your slime mess effectively. We’re now going to discuss the general steps you need to take and what kind of solution you can use.
Steps To Removing Slime From Carpet
The individual steps are not complicated to follow at all, and they should be intuitive for most people anyways. The key is just making sure that you follow these simple steps in order and possibly repeat them if you’re not finding any success. If you find that the steps aren’t working in general, you may have to do more research for your specific kind of slime.
1. Remove The Excess Slime
Besides actually cleaning the slime, removing the excess slime beforehand is the most important step. First, grab a dry towel or clean cloth and mop up as much slime residue as you can. You can try and use your hands to remove it, and others have recommended you try a spoon or a butter knife.
If you find that the slime has dried too much, you can try an ice cube to melt over or a spray bottle with warm water to wet the slime to make it more removable. The goal is to try and dampen it slightly and not saturate the mess completely.
2. Apply The Cleaning Solution
The next step is to actually apply your cleaning solution, and we’ll further discuss what kind of solution you should use later in this article. As a general rule, you can just pour/apply the solution directly, but make sure you refer to the manufactures advice. This might mean adding the solution in a spray bottle and spray it onto the mess or mixing with hot water.
When you apply the solution, the slime should begin to dissolve immediately. If the slime has become too hardened so it doesn’t dissolve immediately, you should let the solution soak in for upwards of 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Scrub the Slime Stains
After you’ve applied the solution, you can scrub the slime spill with a soft brush so that the slime begins to loosen. This will start to break the slime down and make it much easier to remove the slime. Grab a bucket of water and a damp cloth and start removing the loose pieces of slime.
This step might need to be repeated until all the slime is removed.
4. Dry The Carpet
After you’ve repeated the previous step enough times to get satisfactory results, you should then start drying the area. You need to focus on not only removing the remaining slime but also focus on removing any remaining cleaning solution. This step will have its significance based on the solution that you decide to use for cleaning, but no matter what you use you should really plan to dry the area.
To best perform this step, you should use a white towel to dry the area. In certain cases, you probably have to reapply the solution and continue to pat it down. Repeat this step as many times as you need until the mess reduces to the level that you want it to.
5. Vacuum The Carpet
After you’ve finished drying the carpet, you should finish by vacuuming the carpet to remove any remaining liquid or slime. How valuable this step will be is again going to depend on your own situation; you may have to vacuum longer for certain messes compared to others. Also, if you’ve noticed any staining on the carpet, you can use OxiClean to remove the color.
As you can see, the steps we discussed are not hard to follow at all, and they all apply to carpet messes in general. Just make sure that you closely pay attention to each step to make sure that you did it correctly and to judge how the next step should be performed. Now, we should talk about the different solutions you can use.
Different Types of Cleaning Solutions
Choosing which solution you will use will be the most important decision that you make for your cleanup. Different ones work better for different situations, and it’s up to you to decide which cleaning solution will be the most appropriate for your mess. There is a wide variety of slime on the market so some points to consider are:
- Is it homemade slime?
- Does the slime contain food coloring?
- How long has the slime spill been there?
This guide serves to let people know what kind of cleaning solutions are available and use them as a source of reference.
We’ve already discussed ice cubes and carpet cleaner, but there are also:
- Club Soda
- WD-40
- Goo Gone
- Baking Soda & White Vinegar
- Vinegar & Water
- Dish Soap
For most of your spills, Vinegar & Warm Water will most likely be the best option for you to use. The other options all have their own advantages and varying degrees of effectiveness but it all depends on an individuals circumstances. To best prepare, you should think about your slime beforehand and learn how you would treat it if a spill were to ever happen.
Conclusion
Carpets can be a great source of enjoyment for toddlers, but what comes with that is the threat that somebody could create a mess very easily with slime.
However, you should have no worries because treating a slime carpet mess can be a lot easier than you realize, and as long as you act quickly and are aware of the types of cleanup needed, you can get the slime out effectively and make it look like it never spilled in the first place.
Toddlers should always have some slime time as it’s such a great sensory activity. Now you can let them play with slime, safe in the knowledge that if the worse does happen you are now have the skills of a slime removing carpet cleaning ninja!
