How To Get Candle Wax Out Of Carpet

Candles look awesome, right? Well if you are like me and have a few “fancy” candles and burners around the house, you know the pain of candle wax dripping on things all too well, especially if you have candle wax on your carpet… something I have had happen a few times now.

Well, I have done my homework and now I have a couple of ways you can remove wax from your carpet that I am going to share with you.

Remove Candle Wax From Carpet By Freezing It

The first method we are going to look at is using the power of ice, and I am not talking about cryogenically freezing the carpet for future generations to clean it with their advanced technology either!

Step 1

You need a bag of ice or even better a flat ice pack. The idea here is that you place it over the wax and let it freeze. It will take a good five minutes or so for the wax to be frozen. Some people even use some kind of food from the freezer, just make sure it covers the whole wax stain.

Step 2

Using a butter knife, chip away at the wax and it will come off in little bits. Now there is no exact science here, you either get lucky and all of it comes up or it is really stubborn and only little pieces come up. If you cannot get rid of it by chipping away at it when it is frozen, move on and try out method two.

Step 3

Next up you want to use a carpet cleaner. Some folks say that a cleaning solvent gets the job done too, but a carpet cleaner will be much kinder on your carpet. You are doing this to freshen up the carpet and get rid of any leftover wax or stains that may be on your carpet. Do this as many times as you need to until all the evidence of your wax mishap is gone!

Step 4

The last thing you want to do is give the carpet a good vacuuming to bring it back to its former glory. It has been through a lot so giving it a good vacuuming is the least you can do. If you have Berber carpet then these vacuums will perform the best.

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How To Get Candle Wax Out Of Carpet By Melting It

Put the flamethrower away and make sure you are very careful when you are using heat to get rid of the wax that has been spilled on the carpet. If you have already tried freezing the wax and chipping it away and it has not worked, now it is time to heat things up a little bit.

Step 1

Get a cotton towel, not one of your fancy ones, one that you do not mind getting a little dirty. You want to very slightly dampen the towel and put it over the wax stain.

Step 2

Next up you want to get your faithful iron out of the cupboard and turn it up to the high setting. Allow your iron to get nice and hot before you do the next step.

Step 3

Place the iron on the damp towel and press down for around 30 seconds. If you were having a wild party and the wax is particularly spread out, move the iron around slightly to make sure all of the wax is getting heated up.

Step 4

The heat of the iron is going to pull the wax out of the carpet and onto the towel. Now you have to pay attention here. If the towel gets really dry, make sure you damp it a little bit. Also if the towel is really covered in wax and you have a bit more wax to get rid of, get a new towel as you do not want to run the risk of the wax melting back onto the carpet.

Just pay attention to what you are doing and you will be fine. It can take a few attempts to get this just right.

Step 5

Once you have gotten all of the wax-up from the carpet and if you are lucky and there is no stain, give yourself a high five as you are done! However chances are, you may actually be left with a bit of a stain. You now want to use some carpet cleaner to get rid of the stain.

Step 6

There is no right or wrong answer for how you are using your carpet cleaner to remove wax from the carpet. The method that works well for me is to really mash it in with a small spoon, leave it for a while and then clean it up. Do not worry if it takes a few blasts with a carpet cleaner to get rid of the stain completely.

Step 7

Once the stain is all gone, give your carpet some love. No, do not get down and give it a hug! Give it a little sprinkle with some carpet cleaner and vacuum it really well to bring it back to its best.

With both these methods, I want to again let you know that you may have to do them more than once in order to fully get rid of that wax. Also, one last pro tip that I want to share is that you need to make sure you get rid of any leftover stain that is there as quickly as you can.

It is one thing to be happy with yourself for getting the wax all gone, but do not leave that stain (if there is one) until tomorrow or the next day as it will be so much harder to remove.

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Preventing Wax From Getting On Your Carpet

I will not lie, getting wax out of carpet is a chore that most of us can do without. It, as you can see, is not hard, it is just really annoying. The way you can avoid this is with a little prevention and I have a few tips for you.

Look for candle holders that are less likely to fall over when the slightest breeze blows by! I actually got some nice ones that even have a little extra part to them to catch any potential dripping wax.

Think about where you are placing your candles. After the second time, I decided that the living room coffee table is not the best place for candles when I have a dog running around. Candles are fantastic, but think about where you are placing them.

Resources

Wikihow, HowToCleanStuff, and The Spruce