Rusty

March 11, 2010

This evening, I had to go to my former home - the little townhouse. I had moved a bunch of stuff out over the weekend, including a number of things from the rooftop patio. These things have been subjected to the elements and have developed rust spots. Moving these things through the house, cause some rust to fall on the carpet. As the house will be handed over to the new owners shortly, I had to go back to clean the stain off the carpet. Today's question is: how would one remove rust stains from carpet using natural products?

A:

The citric acid in lemons is a key ingredient in the removal of rust and tends to be an effective product in cleaning rust from fabric and carpet. Applying the lemon liberally onto the rust, agitate the lemon into the carpet fibres, taking care not to spread the stain. Let the lemon sit for one hour. Then rinse and blot dry.

If the rust stain remains, try cream of tarter. Mix the cream of tarter with a little bit of water to create a paste. Apply, agitate and let sit for one hour. Rinse and dry.

If neither of these techniques removes the stain, try vinegar, using the same method as the lemon. Once it is dry, sprinkle with baking soda to neutralize the acidity of the vinegar. Allow the baking soda to dry, once the baking soda has caked, it can be vacuumed up. This will eliminate the odour of the vinegar and hopefully remove the rust stain.

As I didn’t have the hour(s) required for the natural products, I used oxyclean. Not quite as environmentally friendly as I would have liked, but just as effective. The stain is now gone… and actually looks a little cleaner than the rest of the carpet!

Sources:
http://www.ehow.com/how_18749_remove-rust-carpet.html
http://ezinearticles.com/?Remove-Rust-Stains-From-Carpet-and-Upholstery&id=2767776