Remove Fruit Juice Stains

Normally you can remove fruit juice stains from carpet without too much trouble, but it does depend on what kind of juice was spilled, and the color of the carpet. Grapefruit juice spills on beige carpets will barely be noticeable, for example - unless it was ruby-red grapefruit. Here are the steps to take for removing juice stains.

If you get it when it is still just a spill, it may not become a stain. As quickly as you can soak up the liquid using undyed paper towels (white ones) or a clean white cotton cloth. Grab any towel or cloth if nothing else is available, but keep in mind that some have dyes that can transfer to carpet, causing more staining.

Rinse the area with water repeatedly. Soak it up each time with a clean cloth, paper towels, or using a wet/dry vacuum cleaner. For most juices this should be enough. Now let's look at what you can do if there is still some discoloring, or if the juice dried before you discovered it.

If the spot has dried, wet it with a little water and follow the procedure above. If there still is a stain, mix a few drops of dish washing detergent with a few ounces of water and apply this in three parts, working it in gently and blotting it up with a clean white cotton cloth or white paper towels between applications. If you're still seeing transfer of the stain to the cloth, make another batch and continue the process. If you see no more transfer, the remaining stain might be permanent, but call a professional cleaner to be sure.

Once you have done the cleaning, rinse the spot with plain water several times, until the detergent is all out. Blot up the moisture each time. Weighted paper towels (white only) will soak up much or the remaining water. Replace the paper towels with fresh ones as they get soaked.