Removing Nail Polish from Carpet - Sis 1

Bear never fails to take advantage of open doors.

I keep my nail polish in a closet with a child-proofed door knob. My son, Bear, has not yet learned how to open child-proof door knobs. But, on occasion, someone else in the family opens this door and leaves it that way. That happened today.

I already know how Bear opens nail polish bottles, as I've seen him do it before. He grabs the lid in one hand, the bottle in the other, and pulls. There's that super-human strength. With all that force being exerted, when the lid comes off, the polish splatters everywhere. Which also happened today, but this time it was on the carpet in the hall, along with Bear's pants, arms and hands.

I was lucky enough to catch him very soon after he had finished splashing the polish on the carpet. I have also had to deal with this mess a time or two in the past and know how to clean it. So, here's how:

Immediately pour a generous amount of rubbing alcohol over every bit of polish-splattered carpet. Now, it's a good idea to go put on some rubber gloves, if you don't like your hands turning white and being so dry that they crack ( I skipped that part). Come back and quickly dab out as much polish as possible with a white paper towel. You will need lots of these. Bring the whole roll. Now rub the carpet with the paper towels, adding more rubbing alcohol as needed until all of the nail polish is gone.

There will probably still be staining from the dye in the polish though. Now pour a generous amount of hydrogen peroxide onto the affected carpet. Rub that thoroughly with clean paper towels until the color is gone. You may not be able to get ALL of the color out, but it will definitely be lighter.

I used my blow dryer to dry the carpet so you could see the results in the pictures. Wet carpet looks worse than dry.

The pants weren't worth saving.

Unfortunately, Bear was also busy while I was cleaning up the polish. I have found all but 7 of the keys now.