Cleaning candle wax
Candles are a great way to brighten up a room and improve the ambience in your home. They are also a nice way to relax, and if you light a few candles after finishing work you can almost feel the stress melting away along with the wax.
If you let the candle burn down too much or place it in an unsuitable holder, you may find candle wax has fallen onto your carpet. Like any stain on your carpet, you need to be careful when you remove candle wax from your carpet as you don’t want to make the mess worse.
Fortunately, candle wax is one of the easier stains to remove from your carpet. Like all stains, the quicker you get to it the easier it will be to remove. There are generally two options when it comes to cleaning up candle wax: freezing or heating. Whichever method you choose will depend on your preference and what items you have to hand.
The freeze and pick method
This is the easiest method for removing any solid stain from the carpet and it works especially great with candle wax. It involves freezing the wax until it is solid enough that you can just lift it from the carpet. If this method doesn’t work or you have a deep pile carpet, move on to the next method.
What you will need
- Ice cubes
- Clear plastic bag
- Butter knife or another blunt object
- Vacuum cleaner
- Dishwashing liquid
- Paper towels
Follow these steps
Step 1: Put some of the ice cubes into the clear plastic bag. Any bag will do, such as a food bag or rubbish bag. If you don’t have any ice cubes to hand, anything in your freezer will do. Frozen veg or broken up ice poles are the best option.
Step 2: Hold the bag with the ice cubes against the wax on the carpet until it freezes. Keep checking the wax until it is solid.
Step 3: Once the wax is solid, lift it from the carpet using the butter knife. You should be able to pick most of the wax off, just be careful not to damage the carpet. If you have a deep pile carpet ant the wax has melted deep into the fibres, you may need to go on to the next method.
Step 4: Vacuum the area to remove any broken bits of wax that have been chipped off. A cheap handheld vacuum, like the ones on Clean Home Guide, will be best for this job.
Step 5: Mix a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid into a bowl of warm water. Use the paper towels to blot the stain with the mixture. Gently press the stain, be careful not to rub or you could damage the carpet or spread the stain further. Continue blotting until the stain has gone.