Removing Egg Stains

There are a couple types of egg stains. There are the raw egg spills which only become stains if you don't clean them up right away, and there are the greasy cooked-egg stains. The latter are best addressed using the instructions on the page on Grease Carpet Stains. Removing egg stains from raw eggs is covered below.

First, as mentioned, there may not be a stain to remove if you catch the spill right away. This is particularly true if it is just egg white that dripped onto a rug or carpet. Use a spoon to scoop up what you can, then wet and blot up the rest using water and a clean white cotton cloth or white paper towels. A wet/dry vacuum cleaner make it even easier, because you can quickly flush the spot with water and extract it over and over.

If you suspect that some egg remains you can neutralize any odors and further clean out the proteins using clear household ammonia. Add a tablespoon to a half-cup of water and apply it a little at a time and sucking it out with that wet/dry vac after each application (or blot it up with a clean cloth).

A few drops of Dawn (Joy works well too) in a cup of water makes a good cleaning solution for the final cleanup i you really want to be thorough. Apply the mixture, working it into the fibers gently and blotting it up with plain white (undyed) paper towels or a clean white cotton cloth. Repeat until you have used up your solution.

If the egg has dried in the carpet before you discovered it, try scraping out as much as you can using the edge of a spoon or a dull knife. Then follow the procedure above to remove egg stains that remain.

Drying the carpet quickly afterward is always a good idea. Lay a small stack of plain white paper towels over the wet area and weigh them down with a pan or or something that will not cause its own staining if it gets wet. Once the moisture has been mostly soaked up, a fan blowing over the area will finish the process.