F****G KIDS- cream carpet, food dye all over it! HELP!!!!!!

[nearlythere]

To cut a long story very short! My MIL makes sugar flowers and has been in my kitchen today making sugar orchids for our anniversary cake, to make them she uses powdered food colourings to brush them and add colour etc.

Well, she'd just made them and sat down in the living room with dh to have a cuppa before going back to tidy and put everything away, BUT dt's managed to get a pot of pillarbox red powder dye off the counter and take it upstairs into my bedroom and spilt it over the carpet.

MIL took the vax up there and managed to rub it further into the carpet apparently.

So any ideas- i'm at work and haven't seen it yet, but i can imagine the carnage. What might get it out so i can pick it up on the way home, i've got vanish powershot, 1001 troubleshooter and have a steam cleaner- might these work?

If it's a powder then sellotape wrapped around the fingers of one hand sticky side out might help. Wrap it several time around one hand, then dab at the powder in a sort of rolling motion. It works for lily pollen with is a nightmare to get off things. If it's already been rubbed in then it may be too late for this remedy.

bless! kids ah! if none of that works id claim on home insurance.

she used a vax with a turbo brush to really rub in the stain- bless the mil!!

I think you may have to buy a rug.

don't spray anything on it yourself, they will only take the colour out. Once the stain is there, it is there and will not get any worse. If you had a scotchguard on it, you may have a warranty for spot cleans, if not call a professional and they will clean the small area for you. hth the company i work for charge £45 inc VAT, but they are expensive

you will all be pleased to know that biological washing powder (the cheap bettabuy stuff from morrisons), mixed with a bit of vinegar did the trick wonderfully, i dread to think what that wsahing powder would do to skin after clothes have been washed in it but it is a staple of my cleaning kit for its sheer power!!!

This did however lead to a different problem, the spots where the food colouring was are now the original colour of the carpet, do poor dh is rug doctoring the house today!!!

wow -I'm amazed you shifted it!

I've borrowed my mums colouring powders (she does sugarcraft and wedding cakes too) in the past to decorate DD's birthday cake and they really stain. I ruined a wooden bread board with them and have had fingers of every colour imaginable

was going to suggest Dreft washing powder mixed with some water and gently massaged (not rubbed) in. The chap that cleaned our carpets said this was the best thing to use on stains and marks and it really does work.

i know- i had visions of a new carpet being required, but that washing powder is the b***ks! lethal but works wonders!!!

(NOTE: NEVER use morrisons bettabuy bio washing powder on clothes- you may dissolve your children! )