Amid the frights of Halloween, there’s the ever-present terror of knowing you’ve got to clean up afterwards.
Particularly if you’ve got kids, there’s the potential for a whole load of mess during spooky season, from slime on sofas to face paint on wall paint.
What we don’t want is the state of your carpets scaring you more than the costumers, so we’ve called in the professionals.
Flooring Superstore andHenry Paterson, Senior Operations Executive at Housekeep, have collaborated to showy you the best way to clean common stains you might grapple with during this period.
Here they reveal how to clean up chocolate, sweets, pumpkin pulp, face paint, and fake blood this Halloween. Save your home from the ravages of trick-or-treating, and feel less stressed as your little Draculas and witches are running around.
Chocolate and sweets
Those with laminate, vinyl, and wood flooring can pick up any dropped sweets and give the area a quick wipe. For those with carpets, removing trodden-in sweets a little trickier.
This is how Henry recommends cleaning gummy and sticky sweets, as well as dried-in chocolate:
- If the chocolate has dried onto your carpet, loosen as much as you can with a blunt knife and then vacuum the area.
- Dampen a white microfibre cloth in a mild solution of washing up liquid and water – just a couple of drops in a bowl of water should be enough.
- Dab the affected area of the carpet with your cloth to remove the chocolate o melted candy. You could also use a carpet cleaning spray too, if you have one.
- Once you’ve blotted away all the chocolate, leave the area to air dry before vacuuming the whole carpet.
Always test cleaning products on a hidden area first, to ensure it won’t stain or discolour fabric and carpets.
Pumpkin pulp
When carving pumpkins, it makes sense to put down newspaper or a protective sheet, but that’s not a guarantee things won’t get messy.
The inner pulp tends to be the culprit of this mess, and it can stain fabric if not caught early. If you’ve got a carpet, here’s what you should do:
- If you notice the pumpkin pulp while it’s still wet, begin by removing as much as you can with a spoon.
- Dampen a white cloth in a solution of washing up liquid and water. Then blot the area to remove the pulp.
- Wash away any suds that remain with another damp cloth before leaving to air dry. Then vacuum the whole carpet. If you’ve got a carpet cleaning spray, this will work instead of washing up liquid – just follow the product instructions.
For spillages on hard surfaces, a wipe with water and a standard all-purpose cleaner will do the trick.
Face paint and fake blood
These are some of the scariest stains you’ll face at Halloween, and a drop of fake blood on a clean carpet is sure to illicit some screams.
For those who’ve spilled or smudged costume makeup into their carpet, here’s what to do:
- You can try to use a washing up liquid and water solution to remove fake blood, but you may need to enlist the help of a proper carpet cleaning product.
- As with other stains, dampen a clean white cloth and dab the area. With any stains, you should always work from the outside of the stain to the centre, to prevent spreading.
- You may need to leave the area to dry and repeat the process.
Taking your time is key here, so resist the urge to vigorously rub the stain and opt for dabbing and waiting.
Those with hard floors should be able to remove residue with kitchen towel, then give the area a wipe.
Henry also advised on which cleaning products to avoid using on specific flooring types: ‘It’s important when cleaning any flooring to read the labels of your products to check they’re suitable and follow the instructions provided.
‘For homemade remedies, such as bleach and water solution, white vinegar, or isopropyl alcohol, do a quick online search to check that they’re suitable for your floors.’
He continued that ‘for wood, vinyl and laminate surfaces, you should try to use as little moisture as possible to avoid any warping. You should wring your mop or cloth as much as possible – until it’s almost dry – before cleaning, and run over with a dry mop or cloth afterwards to quickly dry the floor’.
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