It IS a miracle: Carpet Stain Remover!

...If you consider erasing set in who-knows-what-they-are-or-how-long-they-have-been-there-stains from your carpet to be a miracle -- And I do -- then you need to read on!

Last week while I was scrolling through Pinterest, I came across this Pin:

Source: Pinterest via One Good Thing by Jillee

Well I just had to try it! Despite our best efforts to ban shoes and food and drinks from the living room after we spent lots of time and energy renting a steam cleaner and going to town on the job one day, months later stains seemed to reappear.  I guess you can't ban the girls from throwing up blueberry waffle all over the carpet. I know gross, but I just had to over share my mommy misery about sick days. Believe me I got at that mess RIGHT away and I thought I did a pretty good job, but once the carpet dried the tell tale pale purple blotch was still there.

I was set to just ignore these stains and pray everyone else would suddenly be struck down with the same blindness that sets in when you live with something for long enough.  You know, it just fades into the background and no one notices...But I'm kidding myself, these stains are glaring and VERY disgusting. 

Did you know that sweat leaves a stain? I have been dripping puddles of sweat doing Insanity and yep, ruining my carpet, until I got smart --that is, my husband reminded me to get smart--and I started pulling out the gym mat and laying towels down. The damage was done, however. 

So I gathered up my supplies:

Here is what you need: White towels, A hot Iron, Ammonia, HOT water, and a spray bottle.

Open up the windows to ventilate your room.

Mix 1 part ammonia with 1 part hot water in a spray bottle

Locate your stain:

It's a small one, but it is there!

Spray the stain liberally with the ammonia solution.

Cover the stain with your white towel and pray to the cleaning gods. You don't really need to send up any prayers--just run your hot iron over the towel. Steer clear. Try not to breath in that steam!

When you lift the towel here is what you see--or what you DON'T see:

Gone, but not forgotten:

I did most of my carpet stain cleaning last night. I was so amazed and excited to see the blueberry-tinged-vomit-stain disappear that I forgot to grab the camera for the glorious before and after shots...but trust me when I say that the stain is gone!   So pardon the sad little demonstration with the only small stain I had left to try this morning--the larger stains were much  more dramatic. 

I just had to share the idea with all of you because the Mister doesn't get as excited and amazed as I need him to be. He still doesn't get the whole Pinterest phenomenon. He's happy that the stains are gone, I am sure, because we've both been complaining about them for a while, but sleep was a more pressing need for him at 11pm last night! 

So tell me you are amazed!