The family home becomes a hive of activity at Christmas, often resulting in a lot of mess, from spilt wine to stray candle wax. Anthony Hill is on hand with the experts’ advice for cleaning up when the celebrations end.
Amid the fun and frolics of a Christmas spent with family, friends and whoever else turns up on the doorstep bearing gifts, it is easy to forget just how hard you’ve worked to transform your home into the perfect festive setting.
From a spilt glass of mulled wine to a splatter of cranberry sauce, traditional Christmas food and drink are often responsible for the worst household stains, with curtains and carpets particularly vulnerable to attack.
Here to help, however, with a raft of expert advice, is ServiceMaster Clean, which maintains thousands of homes across the UK. Here are their top tips for tackling the messy Christmas aftermath:
Cranberry sauce
A tasty addition to the turkey dinner, it is also one of the most notorious Christmas carpet stain culprits. When cranberry sauce has been dropped on the floor, start by scraping away as much excess as possible.
Then, with a dry cloth, apply a small amount of white vinegar in a light dabbing action. Apply a soap flake solution – about a teaspoonful to a mug of warm water – and continue dabbing. Repeat this process and rinse with water.
The stain may not disappear entirely, but should be visibly reduced straight away.
Candle wax
The experts at ServiceMaster Clean suggest blotting paper as a starting point for getting Christmas candle wax out of a carpet.
Place the paper over the spill and gently press the point of your iron – pre-heated to a moderate temperature – onto the wax. As the wax heats up, it should be absorbed by the blotting paper.
When a dark spot appears on the paper, move a dry section of it over the spill and continue ‘ironing’ it lightly. Any remaining traces can be removed by dabbing with a small amount of white spirit on a clean cloth.
Mulled wine
When wine of any variety makes its way out of the glass and onto the carpet, it is essential to act fast. To begin with, using kitchen towels, absorb as much of the liquid as possible. Then dampen the area with a light spray of water.
Next, you need to sprinkle the spilled wine with a generous amount of talcum powder and place more kitchen towel over it. Cover the area with a sheet of cling film and sit something heavy – like a thick book – on top.
If you leave this for around 12 hours, the talc should absorb all of the wine. Then all that’s left to do is vacuum away the powder.
For more expert cleaning advice, check out www.servicemasterclean.co.uk.
