The dreaded red wine spill, how to make it disappear!

Any parent out there knows the never-ending challenge of keeping your house clean when you share your house with children who seem to conspire against you. Whether it’s muddy football boots, finger paint, spilt juice or craft glitter there’s always something making a mess.

But it’s not just kids that can create a mess and if you have carpets the pressure to prevent spills and stains feels even more heightened. When we moved into our new house I was paranoid about the carpet for the first few weeks, until I realised I couldn’t maintain that level of stress or I’d never enjoy the house! So now we are careful but not over the top, because accidents happen.

But one thing you can do to prevent both stress and stains is to invest in a stain resistant carpet, so you know even when accidents do happen it won’t be the end of the world. Even the dreaded red wine spill!

Choices Flooring has a Family Friendly carpet range which features the Serenity Collection, which prides itself on being the easiest carpet to clean ‘on the planet.’ That’s a big call! The Serenity Elysium carpet has permanent built-in stain and soil protection that won’t wear or wash off and its specifically engineered fibres make it the world’s toughest and softest carpet. The Elysium and Utopia carpets feature a DualShield Protection, an advanced nanotechnology that creates a barrier on each fibre to repel dirt and spills so they don’t turn into stains.

Now I have no idea what nanotechnology is, but it sounds impressive!

However if you haven’t invested in stain resistant carpets yet and you do get a dreaded red wine stain the trick is to blot as much of the stain as you can straight away, ideally with a white cloth. After you’ve blotted pour a small amount of cold water directly onto the wine stain, which helps dilute the stain and makes blotting easier. When no more of the stain will come out make a baking soda paste by mixing a three to one ratio of water to baking soda and applying it to the affected area. Once the paste is dry, vacuum the stain.

Another home remedy you can try is a mixture of two cups of warm water, one tablespoon of white vinegar and one tablespoon of dishwashing liquid. Finally, if the spill happens in the middle of a party and you can’t get to it straight away pour some soda water or salt onto the stain, which will help prevent it from soaking in.

Alternatively, you could stick to white wine!