Thank goodness for color-safe bleach....

[brooksmoses]

See, having a bottle of bleach fall from the top shelf of the linen closet and splatter half its contents all over the carpet would have been really really bad if it hadn't been color-safe, I think.

As it is, we've essentially got a couple of square feet of carpet that are pretty much just soapy. We tried diluting with water, soaking up the soapy water with towels (starting, of course, with the ones that needed bleaching), and repeating until out of towels, and it's still soapy. Sigh. At least it's theoretically less soapy.

Any suggestions for getting the rest of this up, short of renting a carpet-shampooer (which seems, among other things, redundant at this point!), would be appreciated...

Comments

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

Well, you wash and dry the towels, and then you....

Actually, do you have or could you borrow one of those vacuums that squirt water into the carpet, then suck it back out? (Or is that technically a carpet shampooer? I've never handled one of the latter.) Those are bound to be fairly powerful, given the absorbance properties of carpets, and I think it goes without saying that they won't explode if you get their innards wet.

Failing that, a wet/dry vac might do the job. Or moving.

[brooksmoses]

Well, you wash and dry the towels, and then you....

Heh. Yeah, yeah. (Course, I have to do that anyway -- they're currently in the bathtub, and I'll need it soon.)

The vacuums you mention are, I think, essentially a carpet shampooer -- or, at least, equivalent in the sense that I'd have to go pay actual money, probably more than five dollars even, to rent one....

Or moving.

*laugh*

Do you have any idea how many books we have?

On the other hand ... it would solve the problem. Might have to think about it anyhow.

- Brooks

[kiya]

Do you have any idea how many books we have?

Y'all know we're willing to store them for you.

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

In fact, if you give me a list, I can tell you which ones I'd be especially willing to store for you. Even if I'm not part of the 'we' to which Darkhawk refers, which is a possibility I've not ruled out.

Is there some substance that will break the offending matter down into stuff you don't object to having sitting around in your carpet? This suggestion would probably be more useful if I were a chemist, or at least not woefully ignorant.

[frawst.livejournal.com]

Former carpet cleaner by way of aiobheil.

You were right with the water dilution towel pickup, though a wet/dry vac would be best.
Here 4 days later though the best thing to do at this point is to not worry about it, and next time you DO clean your carpets make sure you go over that spot JUST WITH WATER. Shampoo is bad for your carpets in general, but shampoo on top of a colorsafe bleach that contains surfactants (and most do) will leave you with a patch that will get dirty faster than the rest of your carpets for a good long time.

[brooksmoses]

Thanks for the advice; it's much appreciated! And thanks to aiobheil for the "by way of", too.

As for the comment on shampoo being bad for carpets in general; I gather you'd recommend just using water to clean them with (when we do get around to cleaning them) except where necessary for spot-stains, then?

- Brooks

[frawst.livejournal.com]

The by way of was for your really intelligent commentary on the Pledge....but whenever I'm visiting I check out the whole house :)


I would recommend water, and for spot stains when the happen water and a clean white terry towel (6 for a buck at Home Depot)
If there's a stain you didn't see happen/find later - make sure you don't use anything with soaps in it...find something surfactant free (it should say). The only product I know of off hand is made by Chem-Dry (the folks I indentured to) and is called Stain-Ex(tinguisher)
Last known appearence was in a blue and white can, but they've been known to change it without warning so...

http://www.chemdry.com/retail.html


and as an aside, I'm not schilling for them, I just know they work, and that at least on the surfactant stuff they're right :)