Getting Oil off a Carpet

If either you or your children make a big mess in the kitchen, it might behoove you to train yourself with some rudimentary carpet cleaning skills. One of the toughest kitchen stains to deal with is grease or cooking oil stains – the good news is we have your back. If you’re trying to deal with a cooking oil or grease stain, check out our tips and tricks on how to remove oil from a carpet.

Step One: Blot

First, blot up as much of the oil as possible. Use an absorbent fabric like a rag or towel – or in a punch, a brown paper bag. Don’t use newspaper because the ink can easily run and make the stain worse. This can help you get rid of the bulk of the stain.

Coat the stain with powder

After you blot up the remaining oil, coat the stain with an absorbent powder like corn starch or baking soda. Allow the powder to sit on the stain for 2 hours to a day; when you feel like it’s sat there long enough, vacuum up all the powder thoroughly and see if the stain has disappeared. If it has, that’s fantastic! If not, proceed to our next step.

Coat and Scrub with Dish Soap

If there’s still a stain after completing the previous two steps, and you still want to get the remaining oil off the carpet, try a dish soap. These soaps are made to instantly cut through and dissolve grease; simply make a carpet cleaning solution by using a small amount of dishwashing detergent added with water, and apply it directly to the stain. Blot this mixture up with a cloth, and allow the solution to sit in the carpet for one to two minutes – then wash it off with water, and blot up all the excess liquid. You may need to repeat this step a few times to get rid of all the soap suds.

Once you’ve completed these steps, the oil should be completely off your carpet. If there’s still a grease stain, it has a very similar process, however at the very start you will need to scrape off the stain instead of trying to soak it up with an absorbent material.