If you love red wine, then you know it can stain everything. Be it your teeth, your clothes, or the carpet, a red wine stain can seem impossible to get out. Whether you’ve had a little get together that got a little festive or your glass took a tumble while you were reaching for your phone, the sadness that comes with a wasted glass of wine is often followed by horror. You can’t hide a red wine stain. But never fear, you don’t have to live with wine stains. There are a few different methods you can use to remove wine from the carpet.

The first thing you should do is act as fast as possible. If you are the one who wasted the wine or saw it being wasted, the faster you get to it, the easier it is to remove the stain.

Blot:
You may be tempted to scrub the stain with a towel. Don’t. Scrubbing actually pushes the stain into the fibers making it harder to get out. In fact, scrubbing the stain vigorously may heat the fibers, causing the fibers to bond with the stain.
Instead, blot the wine stain. Start with the edges of the stain and work your way to the middle. Doing so will stop the stain from spreading. Keep blotting the stain until you can’t see the stain anymore.

Add Cold Water:
Once you have blotted the stain, you need to add a few drops of cold water to the area. The cold water will not heat the carpet fibers so the stain won’t get suck in. Also, the colder water will show you if any of the wine is left on the carpet. If there is, continue to blot the stain until you can no longer see it. Repeat this process until when you pour a few drops of cold water over the area the water remains clear.

Maybe you have already wasted red wine on your carpet, and it has dried.
Remove with Vinegar:
If you don’t have club soda, vinegar is another option to remove red wine stains. After you have blotted the stain, mix a tablespoon of dishwashing liquid with a tablespoon of white vinegar and then add that mixture to 2 cups of warm water.
Pour a little bit of the mixture onto the stain and then take a white towel and blot the stain until it is gone.

Remove with Salt:
Salt has been used to remove a lot of stains like wine and blood. First, you need to get the stain wet with a little cold water. Then apply a few handfuls of salt to the area and leave it there. You shouldn’t scrub or blot the stain. Leave it until the morning. In the morning, the salt should have crystallized and been dry. If this happened, then you can pick up the salt and throw it in the trash, then vacuum.