By Angela Patrone Sophie Buchan Vita Molyneux
When dealing with carpet spills, the secret to preventing a lasting stain is to respond quickly, but before you go grabbing some carpet cleaner, you may want to look in your bathroom cupboard. Not every household has carpet cleaning solutions readily available. However, there’s no need to panic if that’s your situation. Lynsey Crombie, a cleaning guru and social media personality, has shared a remarkable yet practical trick for unexpected carpet mishaps. Should you find yourself without specialist cleaning products, shaving foam can save the day. Lynsey revealed her advice on her Instagram account @lynsey_queenofclean, explaining: “Shaving foam is not just for shaving, it is also an amazing, inexpensive stain remover that works brilliantly on both carpets and mattresses. “Shaving cream is simply a form of whipped soap. When applied, it lathers up, penetrating and adding moisture to just about any stain.”. This works great as the ingredients in shaving foam are formulated to soften facial hair and include mild abrasives designed to untangle knots and eliminate dead skin – characteristics that work exceptionally well against the particles responsible for stains. Additionally, the consistency of the foam allows it to remain on the stained area for an extended period, ensuring direct and sustained contact with the offending substance, thus enabling a thorough clean, reports Bristol Live Lynsey, dubbed the Queen of Clean, has divulged on her Instagram, she outlined a straightforward method: “Just use warm water and a small soft brush or cloth and very gently rub into the stain, leave for 10 minutes, then rinse away.” To allow the carpet to dry, Lynsey recommends spreading out a cloth in a square shape to dab the area, advising the use of a white cloth to visibly see the stain being removed. It’s crucial to allow the area to air dry naturally afterwards. The cleaning guru emphasises choosing white shaving foam to prevent any dyes from transferring and suggests conducting a patch test before fully committing to this technique. This approach is reportedly quite successful on water-soluble stains such as milk, mud, most foods, soda, ice cream, and gravy. Numerous followers have tried the tip and shared their outcomes in the comments section. User @kolijohnson declared a triumphant result: “I did this on a stain on our hallway carpet, worked a treat. Thank you so much for the tip.” Conversely, @kels_84_ commented: “My carpet had big black sticky glue marks on it, and nothing worked. My sister told me about this, and omg I couldn’t believe it worked. Made up.” Twitter user @_kimholland expressed gratitude for a stain-removal tip, tweeting: “Thank you for the top tip. My cat threw up on the hall carpet in the middle of the night.” They continued to share their success with the advice, adding: “I used your shaving foam tip to clean the stains and it’s worked amazingly well and left no stains or marks on the carpet. Thank you so much for an easy to use but brilliant tip.” Another Twitter user, @kazmcgaz76, recounted their own experience: “We used this when my daughter got nail varnish, all over the carpet. I went mental while the other half was googling as fast as his fingers would let him. Wow, couldn’t believe it brought it out!”.