Revealed: the most commonly Googled carpet stains

Coffee, tea, and red wine have been revealed as the most commonly googled carpet stains in the UK.

Recent research, carried out by cleaning and maintenance company Fantastic Services, looked at monthly Google search figures compiled from the Semrush search analytics tool to find out the most searched carpet stains in the UK.

Coffee topped the list of the most googled stains by Brits, with a monthly average of 1,000 searches. Coffee stains have long been the bane of many a carpet’s life with the darkness of the drink leading to deeper stains as well as the viscosity of fresh coffee leaving it harder to clean.

Tea and red wine followed shortly after in joint second place, each with an average of 880 searches per month. Red wine is an infamous enemy of carpets, light clothing, and soft furnishings all over, and it has the time-honoured remedies to match – think white wine and salt.

Tea stains are less aggressive than coffee or red wine, but given the relative popularity of tea in the UK it is perhaps more likely to be found spilling from mugs and oozing its way into the carpet than the other top rankers.

With spills being the most likely culprit of a carpet stain it is perhaps unsurprising that the top three ranking stains were three of four beverages. The final drink on the list was Coke, which came joint ninth with an average of 140 searches a month.

Worryingly, blood stains came fourth in the most googled carpet stains in the UK. However, it was well below the top three with an average of only 320 searches a month.

Thankfully, the most repellant entrant, faeces, also came joint ninth with Coke and bleach with 140 searches a month. In tenth place, with an average of 110 searches a month was urine.

Also featured were carpet stain regulars curry, with 210 searches, and pollen, with 170. Both are notorious for their ability to ruin rugs, carpets, clothes, and soft furnishings, with pollen being an especially tricky customer when it comes to stains as a simple brush can be all it takes for the pollen on the plant to fall and stain an unsuspecting fabric.

See the full list compiled by Fantastic Services below.

How to remove carpet stains

There is no sure way to remove stains or potential stains from carpets. There are many products that will claim that they have a new innovative solution that has proven to be the best formula for stain removal. Some work better than others and you may not have all of them to hand in your home.

Some stains are extremely tough to remove, especially if they’ve soaked in over time. But if you are at a loss as to how to clean a particular stain from your carpet, or if you have a fresh spillage and no magical chemical product in stock, why not try some of these home remedies?

To remove stains caused by coffee, tea, bleach, coke, curry, and (the dreaded) faeces, try mixing one tablespoon of washing up liquid, one tablespoon of clear vinegar, and two cups of warm water. Give the solution a mix and then take a clean cloth to apply it to the stain. Always make sure to dab the cloth and not scrub. Slowly move the cloth from the outside of the stain towards the middle. Once you have covered the whole stained area, dab the carpet with a dry towel until the area is dry and the stain is (hopefully) gone. Then rinse the area with cold water and dab it dry with a towel once again.

To remove red wine stains you will need white wine and salt. Yes, you heard correctly. Strangely enough, one of the best methods of removing a red wine stain is to pour more wine on it. White wine contains an enzyme that helps to break down the colouring of red wine and, therefore, remove the stain. So, first dab some white wine onto the affected area, followed by the vinegar and washing up liquid solution we saw above. Again, always be sure to dab not scrub. Gently dab the area with a clean towel before pouring salt onto any of the remaining stains. Salt is a powerful absorbent that will soak up any of the remaining liquid in your carpet. Leave the salt for as long as possible and then hoover it up and, with any luck, your carpet should be stain free.

For the removal of blood and urine stains, mix one-half cup of lukewarm water with one tablespoon of ammonia liquid. Apply the solution directly onto the stain by dabbing it on with a cloth. Dab the stain until the liquid is fully absorbed. Then apply cold water directly to the stain, and dab the area dry.

For pollen stains, pour some ethyl alcohol spirit directly onto the affected portion of the carpet. Make sure the stain is completely soaked, and then blot with a paper towel or cloth. The alcohol will cause the pollen to rise to the surface and it should stick to the paper towel.

So there you have it, some age-old methods for removing stains that you can create using resources you have in your own home. We cannot guarantee that these methods will work in every situation, but they are tried and tested solutions that have been used as home remedies for years.

When should you remove a stain from your carpet?

All stains are best and easiest to remove when they are still fresh. When still fresh, the liquid has not had time to seep below the surface and the colouring in the stain has not yet set. If you have spilt coffee, for example, rinsing the affected area with the right solution can dilute the coffee particles before they have a chance to settle and cling to the carpet fibres.

So when it comes to stain removal, earlier is always better. Even once a stain has dried, if people continue to tread on the affected area the carpet fibres will continue to be damaged and ruined by the liquid that caused the stain.

Remember, when you are cleaning a fresh stain, always dab and never scrub! Scrubbing the carpet can damage the material and may cause the staining particles to get trapped further into the fibres.

Why are some stains harder to remove than others?

Every liquid mixture is a compound, and compounds contain within them polar and/or non-polar molecules. A polar molecule has a positive and a negative charge, whereas a non-polar molecule has no separation of charge. Non-polar solvents are insoluble in the universal solvent, water, which means that water cannot break down non-polar molecules and they will, therefore, prove much harder to clean. Coffee, for example, has both polar and non-polar molecules, so water can only clean away the polar molecules. Urine, on the other hand, is made up of polar molecules and is easier to clean with water.

Stains that have been left for longer will always be more difficult to remove. This is because the liquid has dried onto the carpet fibres and removing it will mean each fibre has to be cleaned to be rid of the stain.

Darker coloured stains will also be harder to remove. This is for the obvious reason that they may be only as deep as a lighter stain, but the colouring of the stain renders it more visible to the naked eye.