How to Get Hot Sauce Out of Carpet – 2 Simple Ways (Using Household Items)

Nothing beats the savory taste of some hot sauce on chicken wings when you are too exhausted to cook. But watch out – nothing is also as tiring as trying to clear out old chili stains from your carpet!

You need to act fast to prevent the hot sauce from going too deep into your carpet’s piles. You will also need some vinegar or laundry detergent depending on what is readily available in your house.

So, how do you really go about it?

Let’s dive in and find out!

What You’ll Need

Before you wage war on the hot sauce stain, you will first need to assemble some useful tools to help you in the clean-up.

These include:

• Clean towel or cleaning rag
• Scooping spoon
• Warm water
• White vinegar
• Laundry detergent
• Spray bottle
• Vacuum cleaner
• Steam cleaner

Here’s How to Do It With Vinegar

Using vinegar is one of the most popular methods. It’s an effective first-response solution that doesn’t require a lot to get done.

Steps include:

1. Wear protective clothing. Wearing a pair of gloves will keep your hand safe (you don’t need reminding on what happens if you touch your eyes with hot sauce). You should also wear an apron to protect your clothing from accidental spills when cleaning the stain.
2. Scoop up the excess hot sauce from your carpet. You can use a clean rag to wipe off the excess goo. But it’s much wiser to use a spoon to scoop away on the top pile if the mess creates a mound. That way, the stain won’t smear into an even bigger stain!
3. Prepare your cleaning formula. Mix one part of the white vinegar with one part of warm water. When you have the solution ready, pour it into a clean spray bottle and tightly seal it.
4. Spray the mixture over the affected area. Keep the nozzle at least 5 inches away and spray the vinegar solution onto the stained surface. Ensure that you concentrate most of the stream on the stain to effectively break the stain apart.
5. Blot the stain. To do this, you’ll have to put the clean rag onto the stained area and apply pressure to blot out the broken bits. You can stand on the rag to give more pressure. Do NOT rub the stain as this will only spread the stain wider and we don’t want that!
6. Repeat until you see results. Repeat steps 4 & 5 above until you start to see the hot sauce stain slowly lighten and fade away. Just ensure that you use a clean surface of the rag/towel every time you blot to keep the stain from spreading.
7. Vacuum your carpet. Use a vacuum at the last moment to suck out any debris that may have formed in the course of the cleaning process.
8. Bring on some steam! Ever sniffed something rotten in your home, not knowing where it comes from? That’s why you absolutely need steam to nail the process, sanitizing the carpet and making it smell like new. Steam even works with nasty smells such as cat pee! Plus, it will do an excellent job at breaking down and pushing out any tiny bits of sauce that may have remained.

If It Got Greasy…

If some of the grease from your chicken wings made it onto the carpet along with the sauce, here’s another home remedy.

1. Start by blotting as much hot sauce as possible from the carpet.
2. Use a clean rag and a mixture of laundry detergent and water to treat the stained area. Remember to use a clean area of the rag each time to avoid creating a mess.
3. Repeat the steps above until you see the desired results.
4. Once through, rinse off the detergent to prevent attracting dust on the cleaned spot and vacuum to lift your carpet’s fibers.
5. Again, steam clean for best results!

What is the Best Time to Clean Hot Sauce Spills?

The best time to take care of hot sauce stains is right after the spill happens or immediately you spot the mess on your carpet.

If you leave it unattended, then you’ll have to face one of the toughest stains to ever exist down the line – and it will be nowhere near pleasant!

Hot sauce, especially red chili, get their natural red color from the red tomatoes partly used in their manufacturing. And believe me when I say that materials e.g., carpets, clothing, and upholstery, have a knack for absorbing these kinds of stuff up faster than you can say the word Bingo!

So, what can you do?

By acting quickly and just following the methods highlighted above, you can dodge a very tiring bullet in housekeeping.

Before doing a full stain-clean, ensure that you first test your cleaning solutions on a small part of your carpet to see if it triggers discoloration. This will help you check whether it will react with your carpet’s fabric or dye before you go full-scale cleaning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do hot sauce stains go away?

Hot sauce stains do go away when cleaned properly.

Ensure that you clean the affected area immediately after the spill occurs or when you spot the mess. Doing so gives you a better chance of clearing all of the hot sauce stains from your carpet without breaking a sweat! The sauce will go away even if it’s sweet and sour.

How do you remove set in hot sauce stains?

You can remove set-in hot sauce stains using a steam cleaner.

Steam cleaners use water at more extreme temperatures to break down and lift even the toughest stains from your carpet. As a result, it leaves your carpet clean, refreshed, and unaffected by any chemicals as it only uses pressurized hot water.

Do vinegar and detergent remove all types of hot sauce?

Using vinegar or washing detergent may or may not remove all types of hot sauce stains.

Whether you achieve success in either of the methods above depends on how fast you react to the stain. If you start cleaning immediately after the spill happens, then you have a big chance of succeeding.

On the other hand, if you let the hot sauce stain dry and set in, then using vinegar or washing detergents alone may likely not work.