Light the fire, put a movie on, sip on a hot choccy and enjoy a cosy night in. We’re here for the next day when you search “how to get soot out of carpet”.
Having a fireplace is lovely. It’s pretty to decorate, it’s cosy in the winter, it can make you feel accomplished to have in your home and you know you’ll be the envy of everyone on Instagram. But it comes with a dark side. A literal dark side: soot. It gets everywhere!
Soot has magnetic properties allowing them to attach to fabrics such as carpets (especially synthetic carpets). Luckily, there are a few fixes we have up our Seep sleeves for how to get soot out of carpet and how to get soot off walls.
How to Get Soot Out of Carpet
Soot can ground into carpet fibres very easily. You might brush up against the fire screen or the companion set which loosens the soot and allows it to fall on the carpet. Luckily, what you can do to help isn’t too complex.
- What You’ll Need
The tools for how to get soot out of carpet are plain and simple, you’ll only need:
- A vacuum cleaner
- A reusable spray bottle
- Hot water
- Liquid laundry detergent
- A sponge
- Talcum powder
You’ll also need some power. Unless, of course, you’ve got the hamster wheel running in the background!
- What To Do
If your vacuum has settings (e.g. hardwood floor and carpet), make sure it’s on its highest setting. This way, the roller brush doesn’t pack the loose soot further into the carpet fibres. Then, vacuum all the loose soot; if you’re lucky, this might be your only step.
That said, if the soot has been rubbed into the carpet by some helping hands or menacing paws, it’s time to move to the next step of how to get soot out of carpet.
Grab a reusable spray bottle, fill it with hot water and pour in some laundry detergent. Spray directly onto the soot stain and carefully scrub with a dish brush until it’s gone.
Sprinkle talcum powder over the soot and leave for around half an hour to absorb the remaining dampness. Finally, grab your vacuum cleaner back out and suck up all that talc. With this method of how to get soot out of carpet, you should now have a bright and fluffy carpet again!
How to Get Soot Off Walls
Next up, we’ve got soot on the walls. Did you know that this is also called “ghosting”? Spooky. Either way, it’s important to remember that heat rises, and anything from the fireplace to an unsuspecting candle can be the cause of these pesky grey stains.
- What You’ll Need
Understanding how to get soot off walls is a little more complex than how to get soot out of carpet. This is because your walls could be painted or wallpapered and you’ll need one special ingredient.
Usually, at Seep, we’re ace at finding natural alternatives that often outperform general shop-bought cleaners. However, this one had our heads on fire. So, you’ll need:
- A sturdy step
- A blanket, towel or dust cover
- A vacuum cleaner with a hose attachment
- Power (see “how to get soot out of carpet” for a bad joke)
- A pair of rubber gloves
- A dry cleaning sponge (i.e., a magic eraser)
- What To Do
The first step of how to get soot off walls is to open the windows so you’ve got a well-ventilated room to start with. If there are no windows, turn on your extractor fan.
Next, place your blanket, towel or dust cover on the floor below the soot in case loosened particles fall. Then, prop up your step ladder; we can’t instruct much further on this step.
Using a hose attachment on your vacuum, gently go over the ghosted area to loosen soot particles and reduce the amount you need to handle.
Pop your gloves on and grab your dry cleaning sponge. These are made of vulcanized natural rubber which makes them ideal for attracting soot from other surfaces.
When you’re ready, gently wipe the sponge over the soot stain. Don’t scrub as this will make matters worse. When one side of the sponge is blackened, turn it around! Simply keep wiping until the stain is gone and you’ll have your method for how to get soot off walls.
And there you have the remedy to ghosting on your walls and soot stains compacted into your carpet.
For more fun reads about cleaning (is that an oxymoron?), have a look at our online library. We have everything from finding sustainable alternatives to getting down and dirty with specific stains. Why not try "The Sweet and Sour of How to Clean a Microwave with a Lemon" or "Compostable Plastics and New Findings."
