How To Get Slime Out Of Carpet

How To Get Slime Out Of Carpet

Many parents cringe when they hear the word slime.  However, kids jump in excitement when presented with the gooey, gummy stuff.  As cool as slime is to children, it can be a major headache for parents.  As with any craft, the mess is what bothers parents the most.  Slime typically ends up in carpets and clothing and is difficult to remove.  We've tested out a few methods to show how to get slime out of carpet and also from clothes.  Inevitably, if you get it on the carpet, it will be somewhere on the clothes too.

Slime is made by mixing glue, water, and some type of activator such as borax or contact lens solution.  Of course, this is just a simple slime.  To make it cool slime throwing in some glitter, food coloring, and other small objects is advised.  Most parents would simply call it a hard to clean mess waiting to happen.

Techniques To Remove Slime From Carpet

All of these tests were done after doing the initial steps of removing the slime.  These steps include removing as much of the slime using a spoon or the blunt side of a butter knife.  Once the “extra” slime was physically removed the solutions were then tried.

Ice Cubes

Provided the slime spill is fresh, immediately place ice or ice packs onto the spot for 10-15 minutes.  This will freeze the slime and make it easier to scrape it off of the carpet and vacuum.  Surprisingly, this worked really well.  Once the slime is scraped from the carpet allow it to dry before vacuuming.

Carpet Cleaner

There are many store-bought and home-made carpet cleaners for you to choose from. Use the carpet cleaner according to the directions.  The one we used had us spray the area and let sit for 5-10 minutes.  We then took a sponge and warm water to scrub the area in the carpet using small circular motions.  Unfortunately, this seemed to spread the slime color around on the carpet making it appear worse.  However, we noticed that if the water was refreshed often, it wasn’t so bad.  After letting the area dry completely, we were able to vacuum the carpet to remove the loose slime.

Club Soda

Sprinkle club soda on the slime and wait approximately 5 minutes.  Take a dry cloth to blot the extra club soda.  Unfortunately, this did not work out great for us.  We eventually had to go back to the area with a sponge to scrub the slime out of the carpet

WD-40

As reluctant as I was to try this one, we gave it a shot anyway.  Spray the WD-40 on the carpet and let it sit for about 10 minutes.  Grab a scrub brush and some warm water and start scrubbing.  Then blot the area with a clean sponge.  Unfortunately, this one did not work for us.  Not only did it NOT take the slime out of the carpet, it left a greasy feeling on the carpet as well as the carpet pad.  We now have a WD-40 smelly, greasy spot on the carpet

Goo Gone

This one sounded simple.  Simply spray the area with Goo Gone and scrub the slime with a scrub brush.  Wait until dry and vacuum.  Again, kind of like the WD-40 results.  We now have a spot that is oily.  However, Goo Gone does smell much better than WD-40.  

Baking Soda And Vinegar

Spread baking soda over the area of the carpet that has slime.  Then spray it with a mixture of one part water to two parts vinegar.  Wait 10 minutes and then clean the area with a scrub brush.  Use a paper towel to clean up and extra baking soda a slime residue.  Allow it to dry before vacuuming.  This actually worked, but maybe too well as this area of the carpet looked much brighter than the rest. (Always spot test first.  Lesson learned.)

Vinegar And Water

Same as above except omit the baking soda.  One part warm water to two parts vinegar, spray, scrub, dry, and vacuum.  This worked really well for us.

How To Remove Slime From Clothes

As we mentioned above, if you have it in your carpet there is a good chance that the kids have slime on their clothing as well.  Luckily, the methods we used above for carpet can be applied to clothing as well.  With the exception of the WD-40 and the baking soda and vinegar.  I’d be concerned with using baking soda on anything but a white piece of clothing because I wouldn’t want to mess with the color of the shirt.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How do you get slime out of a carpet?

• Scrape as much of the slime up as you can, spray the area with one part warm water, two parts vinegar.  Scrub the area, let dry and vacuum.

Q. How do you remove dried slime?

• Carefully scrape what you can off of the carpet using a spoon or butter knife.  Spray with vinegar and water mix, scrub, dry and vacuum.

Q. How do you get slime putty out of carpet?

• If slime is fresh, place ice over the area for 15 minutes, then scrape and vacuum. Otherwise, spray with vinegar and water mixture, scrub, dry, and vacuum.

Q. Does WD 40 remove slime from carpet?

• It will remove the slime but will leave behind an oily spot on carpet and odor.

Overall Results: How To Remove Slime From Carpet

Overall, the best results were seen in using either ice cubes or vinegar and water.  These two solutions worked the best without too much work and didn’t leave behind a bigger mess.  The best part of both of these solutions is that they are all food products and will not cause any issues with having children or family pets come in contact with them.  It should be noted that the degree of difficulty for removing slime is going to depend on the type of carpet that you have.  So, parents, if you want to see the children’s eyes light up with the idea of making slime, go for it.  It all cleans up in the end!

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