After coming home from a twelve hour day at work, I was greeted by my loving, newly adopted Boxer! I was also met with a stench that would wake the dead, and when I looked inside my home. I saw a dog parent's worst nightmare: projectile diarrhea on my light beige carpet covering approximately 15 square feet!
Having no name brand carpet cleaners in the house, I had to get creative and fast before I passed out from the sight and smell.
To my surprise and delight the following procedure worked flawlessly for the stain and smell. I ran into the shower and grabbed my Gillette Foamy shaving cream. (After cleaning up what I could wearing gloves and a respirator), I squirted the foam on each of the separate 18 (yes 18) soiled areas. I let it sit for about 10-15 minutes.
Then, with a towel that was dampened with hot water, I agitated the spots and "everything" came out instantly! I have found this works better than all the name brand, expensive carpet-stain removers on the market.
By Greg from Columbia, SC
Editor's Note: Be sure to use the old fashioned white shaving cream. Using a gel based shaving product will not have the same effect and may stain your carpet.
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I would definitely limit his freedom during the time when you are gone, how do you keep him from chewing the wires and starting a fire? I am fostering a puppy that cannot be crated and I don't have a room that is puppy proofed yet, so I have been up with it training it. It is deaf and blind, so I am happy to hear of a cleaner probably safer for them then the other kinds. I am going to try it. They are just like children aren't they, and they get into every little thing. Thank you for the tip, it is a great time saving idea! ( I have been using diluted pine sol or dish soap and then for the air freshener and fabric refresher, (my clothes, not the dogs stuff)
have been using snuggle fabric softener, 4 parts water to part fabric softener.) I love the smell of this stuff. I use it as a perfume, I didn't use the dryer sheets because they don't work for me and they are too expensive..ok You have probably heard more than you wanted. Good luck with the boxer and keep him in another room or a kennel, lol!
On the amounts of ingredients you use, you use 4 parts water to HOW MUCH fabric softener for cleaning purposes? Thank you for clearing this up for me, in advance.
Great tip! I would like to ask you if you would know if this tip only works on fresh stain or can it be an old stain, as well.
I have a couple of oriental rugs with some spots that I may try this method of cleaning. Thanks for sharing this with us!
Oh, Greg, this makes me smile and miss, really miss, my long-departed Boxer granddog...my son's dog. I had custody for much of his too-short life. What an amazing creature! I'll try that shaving cream hint, too-thanks!
Makes me a little leery of using shaving cream on my face! What is so powerful to clean up the toughest of carpet stains might not be good to soak into your skin? Still a great tip and I'm almost ready to stain my carpet just to try it out!
Thank you for posting this great tip! I never would have thought in all my years that regular shaving cream could be used in carpet cleaning... that is truly amazing. I will need to try it out on my next mishap.
That's an awesome carpet cleaning idea! Thanks so much. Just out of curiosity, how did you know to use shaving cream. Did you spill some wine, and then think, "Hmm, I should use some shaving cream." :)
I never thought to use shaving cream for carpet cleaning! Fabric softener works too, but I think it's a bit too expensive to use all the time. I'd rather rent a steaming unit then buy a lot of fabric softener.
http://www.simplysteaming.com
Oh wow! I never would have thought that shaving cream would work well for carpet cleaning. I will have to keep this in mind the next time I drop some food on the floor! Thank you so much for the tip!
What a great tip! Shaving cream as a carpet cleaning tool, who would have thought? I will stick this in my back pocket for the next time a carpet cleaning emergency arises.
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Shaving cream is great to take stains out of rugs. Spray and scrub with a brush.
By Gary
I would have to warn anyone trying this. I tried it after reading so many responses about this, and I've since had my carpet professionally cleaned twice and the stains it left won't come out! I will now have to have the carpet replaced!
Any tips gratefully accepted, as it can't get worse than it is already!
BTW: It was the gel, but there was no comment warning against using it at the time I read the 'tip'. (02/29/2008)
By Wendy from Oz
Editor's Note: We're sorry to hear about your carpet. Thank you for letting us all know. We will add a warning to the tip.
When I read this tip over a year ago, I immediately went and got shaving cream. We had those almost black streaks where the doors to rooms are closed. I just gently placed the shaving cream on the carpet, not rubbing and vacuumed when the cream was thoroughly dried. The lines were gone. This is a FANTASTIC tip! (02/29/2008)
By Tedebear
We had several large and small brown wicking stains on the blue commercial carpet in our office area. We would shampoo using every method and stain removal product and suggestion that came along. One day the owner of the business decided to try shaving cream. She used it at home on her carpets and it worked and so decided to try it on the office carpet, it seems to work really good. Wicking stains are the worst stains to treat. A stain we treated with shaving cream three weeks or more ago, still hasn't reappeared. We have decided to use the shaving cream on all the stains before we use our commercial extractor on it. What a simple solution to a major problem! (05/27/2008)
By Julie
Just spilled some pink nail polish on carpet, googled it and found the tip for shaving cream. IT WORKS! (06/10/2008)
By Marjory
Shaving cream is a great emergency carpet-stain remover. Use on ketchup, chocolate, tea, coffee, wine, even blood.
By Martha
Editor's Note: Use the white shaving cream, not the gel.
Can you use shaving cream on paint to get it out of carpet? (06/27/2005)
By andra
If it's dried---no. Try a product called Goof Off (07/24/2005)
By fred
I had accidentally dribbled some hair dye on a light green carpet.I thought nothing would take it out.I just tried the shaving cream and it worked like a charm.
I have used it in the past on pet stains an it's great for them too!
Amazing stuff.I wonder what's in it that makes it work so well? (11/01/2007)
By Sharon
