to think there's nothing I can do to save this carpet?

[imsickbutimpretty]

A few days ago DH spent hours making a delicious home cooked curry [he's an excellent cook]. Unfortunately we managed to knock a bowl from the table onto CREAM CARPET.
You can imagine the scene.
Curry chaos.
Had some stain remover that usually works for everything [and has worked on curry before if you get it straight away] and it seemed to work hooray. Came down the next morning and parts of the stain seem to have cleaned and gone a bit light but the stain is now bigger than it was with curry staining around the edges where there wasn't any marks previously?!
Am assuming this is wicking that's happening but am I best to just leave it now and hope it fades a bit or treat the 'wicking' bit of the stain with the same cleaner?

It's a rental, OF COURSE. And am keen not to lose my deposit when we eventually go. Can't afford a professional carpet cleaner now but good god does it look awful. Dark in places [still damp], clean in others, bit too clean in others. In daylight it doesn't look AS bad but in the evening under the lamp light DEAR GOD.

Help me Mumsnetters, you're my only hope!

I know you say you can't afford a professional cleaner, but mine was £50 for my living room carpet. May not be as expensive as you think.

Thanks @snowsky20009 the ones I found in the local area have quoted higher, I suppose that's because it's already been treated/bleached but I will shop around.
I was hoping for a miracle fix but I also accept this probably doesn't exist!

Have you looked at hiring a rug doctor carpet cleaning machine? Our local Tesco hires them out by the hr and I don't think it's that much. We're going to do ours soon too.

Googled it.......

After scraping the worst of the stain off the sofa, mix two cups of cold water, one tablespoon of a good quality washing up liquid, and one tablespoon of white vinegar. Apply the solution to the stain with a clean cloth. Soak up the excess liquid using a sponge. Repeat steps 3-4 until the stain is a bygone memory.

DD dropped a plate of spaghetti bolognese on our cream carpet. After cleaning the mess we covered the stain in bicarb of soda left it then hoovered when dry. You can't see it at all now.

mix two cups of cold water, one tablespoon of a good quality washing up liquid, and one tablespoon of white vinegar.
Apply the solution to the stain with a clean cloth.
Soak up the excess liquid using a sponge.
Repeat steps 3-4 until the stain is a bygone memory.

@annabellelecter how long did you leave it for?

@myheartbelongsto thank you for taking the time :) I did see that but I'm really paranoid about bleaching the carpet further now, although I suspect some of the 'bleaching' is actually cleaner that I haven't been able to get out properly.

Getting the cleaner out of the carpet afterwards it a real bugger actually, wetting it just makes it foam up again but blotting doesn't seem to get the suds out properly?! The 'bleached' bits have gone hard so I think there's definitely still soap in there.

@neverender thanks for the tip, that might be more affordable in the interim I didn't realise you could do things like that at the supermarket.

Vanish gold carpet foam got dog diarrhoea out of my cream carpet. I had to do it two or three times but it went in the end. And it removed any odour as well.

This is on the assumption that your carpet is otherwise clean. If not you’ll end up with a clean patch amongst the grime - in which case shampooing the whole carpet would be a better idea.

I was going to suggest bicarb of soda also so worth a try.

@lollipopjones very very good point. As it's a rental I'm willing to bet not that clean. In fact now I'm thinking about it, I have a sudden desperate urge to shampoo the whole carpet - god knows when it last had a proper clean. It was pretty marked when we moved in :-/ That could be why the 'white' effect is so pronounced in parts.

I used vanish - it's what I usually swear by! Struggling to get the soap out properly though still, not had that problem before.

Think I will look into the cost of hiring a machine compared to the professional cleaners.

I would continue with soapy wetting and blotting. I did this with a stain on my carpet and, although I must have used a full kitchen roll, it did the trick.

@myheartbelongsto

Great minds think alike!

It was a couple of years ago but I think I did this
Covered stain with bicarb, I think we rubbed it in and left it on for two days
Then hoovered then repeated for approx 8 days. Used at least two pots of bicarb all together. The carpet went from bright orange back to cream.

You can buy bicarb in bulk on amazon & ebay.

A Rug Doctor cost us £50 for the weekend (happened to be a bh weekend) so we ended up with it for 4 days for that price (it needed returning by 6 o'clock on the Tuesday. It cleaned our filthy cream carpet a treat.

ours is a beige cream colour - i think im going to try the bicarb white vinegar and get a quote for a rug doctor.

to get the soap out you can put old towels over the wet bit and walk on them to squeeze the water out of the carpet.

Hire a Rug Doctor machine - they are brilliant! We had cream carpets of almost 10 years old and a clean with this machine once per year brought out all of the stains, it’s amazing!

I have just cleaned my teenage DDs white bedroom with a hired rugdoctor, it was stained and dirty- It has come up like new.

Vanish platinum saved my cream rug when my wee girl spilt my irn bru on it. I just scrubbed it like mad

Another vote for a rug doctor machine here. You hire by the day (minimum 24 hours I think) at Tesco I believe, though we have a local hire place that hires out machines for a half day.

If you have to do 24 hours, try to split the cost with someone as you have such a small amount to do. Friends or family might want to go halves to get their sitting room done!

Quick question about the rugdoctor - how long does the carpet take to dry (roughly) after you've used it? And do you think it would matter that I've already tried to treat the carpet with stain remover and bicarb?
Thank you!

@frasier @glitterkitten24 how long does it take (roughly) for the carpet to dry when you've used a rug doctor? And do you think it matters that I've already tried to treat the carpet - so there's probably still stain remover/soap in the carpet?

The rug doctor do a range of cleaning sprays, each designed to treat a different type of stain. Choose one carefully and spray it on your carpet before washing it. Works really well we've found.

Vanish Powershot has got everything out of my carpets.

It leaves them pretty dry, I do them in morning and they are bone dry by the time the kids come home from school. Although they’d be ok to walk on (with slippers in) straight away.