Efficient Methods in Removing Red Kool-Aid Stains from your Carpet

A year ago, my son spilled a full gallon of red Kool-Aid on my light beige-colored carpet. I tried tons of chemicals to get it out. I had a carpet cleaner come in twice but even that would only lighten the stain a little bit. I wish I own one of those reliable portable carpet cleaners to do the job myself without hiring such services. So here I am a year later trying to figure out if it’s possible to get my deposit back on this apartment. With that huge red stain, it’s doubtful. But it’s worth a shot, right?

Now, a year after the fact, I hear that pouring salt on a spilled liquid will extract the liquid. I heard that if you pour salt on the Kool-Aid once it has been spilled, it extracts it out of the carpet and then you just wait for it to dry and sweep it up with a broom and dustpan. I can’t confirm whether this works or not as it has been a year since the spill.

However, the last thing I tried seemed to work miracles. Here’s what I did. I took a bowl of warm soapy water. I used green colored dawn. I’m not sure what other dish soaps could work. I took a light colored wash cloth and soaked it in the soapy water to get it sopping wet. Then I placed the wash cloth on top of the stain and I put a steaming hot iron on it. I left the iron steaming on the washcloth until it was almost dry. I repeated this process all over the stains.

I noticed instantly that the washcloth was red on the bottom. That told me that the stain was coming out…at least a little. Every little bit helps. So I repeated this process over and over again for about 2 hours. Each time it pulled a little bit more red out. The water was even changing colors.

I stopped working on it when my son came home from visiting with his grandpa. The stain is almost gone. The next time I have some time home while he’s out and about, I will repeat the process and try to get the rest of the stain out. But I wanted to post this because it’s a very simple technique to use and it seems to work better than all of the other things I tried combined…and with a lot less work. No hands and knees scrubbing involved here. Just place the steaming hot iron on top of the wash cloth and wait about 5 or 10 minutes until the wash cloth is just barely damp underneath. Be careful picking up the wash cloth to put it back in the water as it will be incredibly hot. I’ve included before and after pictures so that you can see how well it works. I was absolutely amazed! Good luck to you.