Carpets and Cooking Oil: What to Do if You Spill Cooking Oil on Your Carpet

Keeping your carpets clean can be a real challenge, especially when you have a large family. However, most carpet spills can be cleaned up with a little elbow grease and know-how. There are some liquids, however, that can leave you wondering if your carpet will ever be the same again, such as cooking oil.

Thankfully, like most spillages, cooking oil does have its nemeses.

Put Talcum Powder on the Spillage

This might be most useful with smaller cooking oil stains, but, if nothing else is at hand, can probably help with larger jobs too if necessary.

Talcum powder is designed to absorb moisture, and when you think about it, human bodies can be very oily! Yet it does the trick. Pour enough talcum powder onto the oil stain to cover it, and leave it for half an hour to an hour.

The powder should have absorbed at least most of the oil. If there is some remaining, simply add a little more. Be aware though, that not adding enough will only result in creating a messy paste.

Once the powder has absorbed the oil, vacuum it up and you should be left with a clean and pleasant-smelling carpet.

Sprinkle Salt Over the Area

Again, salt is another compound that absorbs moisture efficiently. Take enough salt to cover the spillage, and sprinkle it over the oil spill. It will help if you use some kitchen roll to soak up any large pools first before sprinkling the salt; otherwise, you might be left with a thick paste.

Leave the salt to absorb the oil for half an hour, and as with the powder, vacuum it up afterwards. If any oil remains, use washing powder and hot water to remove it. As you wipe, make sure you wipe inwards from the edge of the spillage toward the centre to avoid spreading the oil any further.

Use Biological Washing up Liquid

As any kind of cooking oil is biological, biological washing up liquid should work a treat for a cooking oil spillage.

First, take some kitchen roll and place it over the spillage. Next, using some clean shoes, stand on the roll until it soaks up the excess oil. You should now be left with a relatively dry yet oily carpet.

At this point, a bowl of hot water and biological washing up liquid, along with some elbow grease, should work wonders to get the remaining oil out of the carpet. Once done, take some towels, lay them over the wet patch, and dry the area by hand.

The only problem with this method is that you may well be left with a beautifully clean patch in the middle of your carpet!

Carpets can last a very long time, even if they encounter numerous spillages and stains. As long as you clean the area quickly and thoroughly after each spillage, there shouldn't be any lasting damage. To further restore your carpet and keep it looking nice, consider professional carpet steam cleaning.