How To Get Candle Wax Out Of Carpet?

Placing candles around the room for a romantic evening, or just to enjoy some ambient, non electric lighting is a wonderful thing. The light is soft, gentle on the eyes, and it flickers delightfully. But, oh no! Some wax has dripped onto your carpet, and you don’t notice until the next day when it is too late. How to get candle wax out of carpet? To save you hours of frantic Googling, we’re here to tell you the best and simplest way to do this!

Thankfully, it is a simple fix, and one that can be done with just a few household bits and pieces. You don’t need to call in an expensive carpet cleaning professional; you can easily remove candle wax yourself – even a large spill can be dealt with quickly and simply, and you will be left with a carpet that is as good as new, with no lingering stains. Let’s look at how you can do this.

What you will need to get candle wax out of carpet

• Butter knife
• Hoover or carpet sweeper
• Iron or steamer
• Clean tea towels
• Carpet stain remover
• Spoon

How to get candle wax out of carpet

Although your first instinct will be to try to clean up the wax as soon as you notice that it has spilled, this clean is actually best left until the wax has completely dried and hardened, otherwise you run the risk of making an even bigger mess! Hold yourself back from trying to clean until the wax has turned back to its solid state.

1. Start by scraping the biggest chunks off the carpet using the flat edge of a butter knife. Do this with some care; many carpets are made up of tightly interwoven loops, which can be loosened or even completely cut if you dig at them too vigorously with any knife – even a blunt one.
2. Run the hoover over the carpet to suck up the scraped off wax, and remove all the small flaky bits.
3. Dampen a tea towel, fold it in half, and place it over the wax patch.
4. Next, plug in an iron and set the temperature to “high.” Once it has heated, place the iron on the damp tea towel, over the wax spill, and let it sit for ten seconds. The heat will melt the wax and draw it into the tea towel, removing it from the carpet.
5. If the tea towel dries out then simply re wet it (it is important that the towel is damp, otherwise the iron may burn through it an damage your carpet even more!)
6. If the spill is a big one and the tea towel becomes saturated with wax, you will need to get a fresh one with space to absorb the wax. Using a towel that is already saturated will not remove the wax effectively.
7. Repeat this process until the wax is all gone.
8. Even when the wax has been removed, you will likely be left with a stain, especially if the candle was a coloured one.
9. Take some heavy duty carpet cleaner and spray it onto the stain. Rub the mixture in with a teaspoon, then blot it with kitchen towel, and pat it dry with another clean tea towel.

The carpet will look darker where you have sprayed the carpet cleaner, but as it dries it should fade to the same colour as the rest of the carpet. Your one remaining problem is now that patch that you have cleaned will be cleaner than the rest of the carpet, and you may end up having to clean the whole thing!

• Read also: How To Get Nail Polish Out Of Carpet?

In times gone by, it was suggested that this method for removing wax from carpet should be used, but a paper bag was recommended rather than the tea towel method. We now know that this is a bad idea – it is very easy to burn a paper bag with an iron, and this, obviously, can damage your carpet beyond repair. Stick to the wet tea towel method, and you can remove any amount of wax from any amount of knocked over candles. There is no time  limit on this fix; you can use it on any wax that is months or even years old.

Here is a little video showing you how to get candle wax out of carpet, if you prefer a visual instruction (this video features red candle wax, but the method will work no matter what colour your spilled wax is):

Final Words

Candles are great, there’s no doubt about it. What’s not so great is when you spill the wax on your expensive carpet! But, as you can see, how to get candle wax out of carpet is a relatively simple and easy fix, and one that you should remember for the future so that you can save any carpet which has had a waxy incident.