You will often find that the hardest part of cleaning is knowing how to deal with specific stains. Whether it is water marking on a wooden surface, or a large glass of red wine thrown across a white carpet, it’s a matter of knowing how to tackle it that makes the cleaning difficult, rather than the physical exertion of scrubbing it out. If you go about trying to get rid of marks in the wrong way, then you may well find that you make the situation a lot worse, so it is worth taking some advice. Most of the advice that follows here revolves around cleaning stains from rather ordinary surfaces, so if you have a house filled with interesting materials and expensive finishes, then you need to be sure that you get a little advice from a professional domestic cleaning service, as otherwise you could well make some expensive mistakes!

Carpets are often the hardest things to get stains out of, as they are not something that you can simply wipe the mess away from. In most circumstances, the quickest way to ensure that a carpet is not stained is to keep the stained area wet whilst you find the appropriate cleaning items. The fact is, a wet stain will not settle, as the substance will not have dried into the fibers. So, if you spill ketchup, red wine or anything else on to a carpet, lift as much of the offending substance off, without smearing it into the pile, and bad it with paper towels or a flannel to get the worst of it out. When you know that you have gotten as much of the staining article out of the pile, then you can wet the stained area with water.

As for getting the stain out completely, there are many methods. You may have heard that red wine needs white wine to get rid of it. Given the state that most people are in when they try this out, the results are rarely accurate, and should perhaps be avoided. You will however find that salt is good for getting up residue spillages. The salt works by soaking up the liquid, but it will dry the area out, which can lead to deeper staining, so as soon as you have vacuumed it up, wet the remaining stain. The best results tend to come from stain-centric cleaning products, which can come in the form of a powder, spray, foam or even rubbing stick. These are applied directly to the stain, and left for a little bit, then scrubbed out. Always read the instructions and care guides, to ensure that you don’t end up spreading the stain out across the carpet, as scrubbing certain residues around will only make the problem bigger and more obvious!

It is essential that wood is protected in the home. From wooden floors to counter tops, you need to seal them with polish and protector, so that spillages like the ones mentioned above do not soak in to the wood itself, as no amount of scrubbing will get rid of a stain that is within the wood! The same goes for water marks and damage; the only way to get rid of these is sanding down the wood, past the stain, and then refinishing the wood. This process can be extremely time consuming and expensive, and you will no doubt find that you have to do it across the board, to ensure that the color stays uniform!

For the best results, always get a professional in if you are worried about it. A domestic cleaning service can deal with floor cleaning, carpet cleaning and all sorts of stain removal!