Ink in the Carpet

One of my sons accidentally (I presume?) broke a pen, causing a whole lot of ink to go all over the middle of a bedroom carpet. Don't even try to guess which son...unless you know our family really well, and then you might just get it right.

Unfortunately, it had time to set before I discovered it. Fortunately for him, he knows how to deal with a maniacal, menopausal, money-managing Mom who went slightly nuts at the idea of paying for new carpeting for the bedroom whenever we move out of this apartment. (If you know our family really, really well, you might know that this same son dumped a printer upside down and ruined a bedroom carpet in our former house, so this contributed to my going nuts. Rule number one in life: Take each incident as one separate offense; don't keep a tally!) But he headed off the storm by being cheerfully quiet and then discussing ways to remove the ink. We tried my ways and his - to no avail, and I gave up. My philosophy: 1) Ink is something you don't get out of a carpet. 2) You don't get it out if you don't do it right away. (Do you see a tiny contradiction between those two?)

Well, you're probably anticipating the climax being that we got it out. Nope, sorry; at least not YET. But yesterday my unconquerable, undefeatable, never-say-die man got involved (just as cheerfully as his son). And by golly, we have diminished that stain. It's not gone, mind you, but it's less than it was. And of course, with hubby involved, we're not done tryin'!

Now, in case you ever have any such accident (I don't wish it on you, believe me), I'd like to tell you what just might work. The first ingredient is to discover it as soon as possible. The second is to believe you just might be able to kill that baby (the stain that is), even if you didn't get to it right away...otherwise you won't try, and it will set worse. Next is hair spray, followed by white vinegar. You can go to this webpage to find out just how to use the hair spray and vinegar. Be sure to note this warning at the bottom of the page, though: "Always test the cleaning solutions on an inconspicuous part of the carpet before using on a large area." That cracked me up. It can't get much worse than a large puddle of ink, can it?