Removing Chocolate Stains from Carpets

There’s no doubt about it; chocolate is simply the best. Even if it’s not at the bottom of the food pyramid, we can all agree that chocolate simply makes life better. However, regardless of how yummy it is, we simply can’t deal with indelible chocolate stains on your favorite carpet or rug. Chocolate stains are some of the most deep, hardest to remove stains around. Let’s say you’re already dealing with a chocolate stain; here’s how to treat it.

Carefully Scrape it Off

Since chocolate melts quickly in higher temperatures and quickly solidifies in low temperatures, carpets and rugs can get ruined by melted chocolate that becomes a mold as the temperature drops. If you notice dried chocolate on your rug or carpet, try gently rug cleaning method of scraping it off – the key word is ‘gentle’ as you can cause more structural damage to the rug if you’re too rough. While this won’t completely remove the stain, it will help make it less thick and much easier to handle. This way you know that even if the carpet or rug gets exposed to higher temperatures that the chocolate won’t re-melt and spread, causing a larger stain.

Vacuum it

After gently scraping all excess solidified chocolate off, use a vacuum to pick up all the small pieces of chocolate that have broken off. Simply eyeballing the rug or carpet and picking it up with your hand might not be enough to get rid of all the pieces that can then re-melt, so a strong vacuum cleaner is the best possible solution. This way you can suck up all the remaining chocolate pieces – as well as any other particulates soiling the carpet.

Hot Water Soak

Since chocolate melts in high temperatures, by soaking the stain in hot water you can remelt the chocolate impacted into its fibers, and weaken the ability of the stain to stick onto the carpet, making it much easier to remove. Once it’s re-melted and sloughed off, use a brush to get rid of the whole mess.

Try Bleach and Detergent

If the hot water soak isn’t effective you might need to combine bleach or detergent with specific brushing technique. Bleach is specially formulated to remove tough stains, and it’s often so concentrated that a single drop will work- however it can also remove color pigments in your carpet’s fibers, permanently staining your carpet or rug. It’s important to ensure that your carpet is NOT “color-fast” before you use any bleach based product in order to preserve its color. If none of the above techniques work, the best strategy is to call up and hire some professional carpet cleaners. These professionals have the necessary expertise in removing tough stains from delicate and rare carpets – this way you won’t have to keep retrying amateur stain removal techniques to no avail.