Most of us have at one time spilt something onto our carpet or furniture and panicked. This page aims to give you a few tips to help stop the spill becoming a nasty stain. 

1. Make sure that any solids are removed from the area of the spill e.g. food, ice, broken glass or china.
2. Take as many tea towels, plain white paper towels or clean white cloths as you have (coloured cloths may stain the item further) and lay over the spill.
3. Keep applying pressure and clean cloths until there is no residual moisture on the tea towel. Do not dry artificially.
4. Now VERY LIGHTLY moisten the stained area with WARM water. Do not soak the area, you will encourage the stain to spread and some fabrics may shrink on drying.
5. Apply some more clean, dry tea towels to the now moistened stain (about 6 to 8 layers thick). On top of this place a flat-bottomed plastic container (a washing bowl is ideal) and fill with heavy objects. This will encourage the moisture to be drawn out of the fabric and into the cloth. Leave until dry, this will take several hours.
6. Now you can call your local professional carpet and upholstery cleaner.
7. When you remove the weights and towels a stain will probably still remain, however it will make the job of your professional cleaner much easier and quicker and therefore cheaper for you, if you have followed these procedures.

1. NEVER rub the affected area with a cloth or towel. This will damage the fibers permanently and leave a visible wear mark.
2. Never apply any of the proprietary cleaners available from the supermarket. These are general cleaners which cannot work on every type of stain and in many cases will 'bulk' the stain setting it into the fabric. This then makes the job of cleaning it even harder for the professional cleaner. He has to first remove the general cleaning agent before he can remove the stain. This increases the length of time to clean the item and therefore increases the cost to you.