The Ingredient In Your Spice Cabinet That's A Savior When You Have A Stained Carpet

Carpeting is always going to be a popular choice in homes, but there's no denying that it stains far too easily. Whether from food or pets, makeup or mud, carpet stains can be a nightmare to remove and can ruin the whole room. Large, stubborn stains in the middle of your living room carpet, if they can't be cleaned (even by a professional), can only be rectified by installing a new carpet — a frustrating, expensive, and labor-intensive process. Before you get to that point, though, try this homemade remedy you can make out of cream of tartar and lemon juice that won't cost nearly as much and is highly effective as a stain remover.

Cream of tartar is one of the more obscure items in your pantry or on your spice rack, but it's incredibly useful. A powdery byproduct of wine production, cream of tartar produces carbon dioxide gas, and when used in baking — similar to leavening agents like yeast or baking powder — it causes foods to rise. It also works as a stabilizer in whipped creams and egg whites, maintaining the airy bubbles necessary for large, stiff peaks. In a surprising twist, the acidic nature of the thick white powder also makes it fantastic at removing stains.

Cream of tartar is also known as tartaric acid or potassium bitartrate. It's a mildly acidic salt, technically, which makes it effective on more delicate surfaces than its stringent cousins. When mixed with a liquid medium it creates a paste that, depending on the liquid in question, can clean all sorts of surfaces. For example, cream of tartar mixed with water can do everything from removing rust to cleaning coffeepots. Mix it with vinegar and you've got a nonabrasive grout and toilet bowl cleanser that can also tackle those burned-on heat marks from the bottoms of your pots and pans. Mixed with lemon juice, however, cream of tartar creates a paste that breaks apart stains on carpets and clothing at a molecular level, allowing them to be scrubbed away with ease.

To make this carpet cleansing paste, you need to only add as much lemon juice to your cream of tartar as it takes to create a paste consistency. Completely cover the stain with the paste and let it sit for at least an hour, working its magic under the surface. Get a clean, damp cloth to blot away both the paste and the stain. A second application can be used in more stubborn cases.

A paste made of cream of tartar is known to be particularly good at removing ink stains from both carpet and clothing. The interesting thing about ink stains, though, is that they fall into both major categories: oil-based and water-based. Regular pen ink, whether from a fountain, gel pen, or ballpoint, is typically water-based. The ink found in permanent marker, however, is oil-based. A paste made of cream of tartar and lemon juice can tackle both of these types of ink with great success. As such, it follows that it can work on all manner of other water-based and oil-based stains as well.

In addition, because of its acidity and effectiveness at removing both categories of stains from carpets and other fabrics, a paste made from cream of tartar and lemon juice is also good to use on old, set-in stains. Once a spill has dried, it can be much harder to remove, and this is doubly true for grease stains. The moisture of the paste mixture alone should be sufficient to revive water-based stains enough for them to be broken down and wiped away. After the cream of tartar mixture has done its work, the stains should be gone forever.