A few months ago, after a night of particularly heavy drinking, a friend proceeded to throw up all over her bedroom carpet. While she got herself together in the bathroom, her husband vacuumed the stuff up!! Several days later, she was doing some housework and started to vacuum… :eek:
WELL , the smell was so rancid she had to leave the house. She finally returned and thoroughly cleaned out the canister that traps the dirt and poured powdered rug deodorizer inside the canister. Mind you this is a person who really can’t afford to run out and buy a new vacuum cleaner (this particular one was a gift from her mother, since she had it with lending hers to her daughter). Till this day, when she vacuums the faint smell of vomit lingers for a few minutes.
I have two questions:
How would one clean up puke from a carpet in the first place?
It sounds to me that the vomit got into the hose or the inner workings. She should try to clean out the hose by carefully reading the instructions that came with the vacuum (if possible, wash the insides with bleach). If she doesn’t have the directions, she should call the company to get a suggestion from them. If that still isn’t possible, maybe pour some deodorizing dry carpet cleaner completely out onto the floor and vacuum it all up.
To clean puke out of carpet: pick up the chunks with a paper towel. NEVER NEVER vacuum them up. Then scrub carpet with some kind of wet deodorizing and/or disinfecting carpet cleaner (I find Oxyclean works best. However, in a pinch, something like Fantastick will work). When it is dry, make sure there is no smell or stain. If there is still a smell and/or stain, scrub it again. Repeat til smell/stain are gone. Spray some Febreeze on it once dry again. That should kill any odor.
Vacuum up something that smells stronger. Seriously. Get some of that whatchamacallit, carpet deodorizer beads or powder or whatever it is, vacuum that up.
Paper towels. Soak up the liquid, scoop up the solids, use wads and wads of paper towels. It helps if you have a trash container handy, like right there, so you can merely elevate the handfuls of sodden disgusting paper towels directly into it.
Here’s a trick I learned from a friend, who’s mom taught it to her. She said if you have to puke (and your in a bedroom) ALWAYS puke ON the bed. It’s one thing to clean it up off the floor (as your friend learned) but it’s MUCH easier to just toss the comforter in the washing machine.
As far as the odor, I’m not sure, what kind of a vacuum cleaner is it. Perhaps it can be dismantled and washed in bleach water, but that might be a more trouble then it’s worth.
Find an enzymatic digester. It’s an engineered bacteria that “eats” organic material (puke, urine, etc). It will destroy the odor, not just cover it up. On a carpet, be sure to soak the area a few inches around the stain since the puke will likely be absorbed in to the foam padding and spread out.
The company I work for sells a product called Nature’s Solution. We sell tons of it.
I’m assuming her husband was drunker than she was, but less prone to regurgitation. (Please tell me this is so-- otherwise my already-shaky faith in the basic fitness of the human species will suffer terribly.)
If it were my vacuum, I would totally disassemble it, machine-wash any fabric items, soak the non-mechanical parts in a solution of bleach, wipe the rest down with a damp (W/ bleach solution) cloth, and then reassemble it.
And then beat the idjit that used it to suck up puke about the head and shoulders with it for about twenty minutes.
For every post I see (including mine) that mentions the use of bleach water, I can’t help but think one thing, and since no one else has mentioned it so far, I will. If you do use bleach water make sure you pay careful attention to anypart that touches the ground or could spatter on the ground. I would rinse all these parts of in plain HOT water. Otherwise you may end up bleaching your carpet.
I have a small Hoover SteamVacJr. It works really well on any spills and stains- even a couple days later – although in this case it would only take a minute to put in some hot water and detergent, plug it in and clean the puke up.
I would think the next step in cleaning vomit off the floor after the big chunks (if any) are picked up would be to get some cornmeal or some clumping cat litter and work in with pieces of cardboard (with gloved hands perhaps) a good measure over the offending puddle. This will get much of the liquid matter up, as the cornmeal or litter would absorb it into clumps, etc. Then, pick those up, THEN follow up with a non-bleaching cleaner mentioned above, as well as the other steps. Much, MUCH less icky this way.
This (http://www.care4health.co.uk/OdourTreat.html) is the stuff I would use, BUT I don’t know if it’s available in NY, (and it would take tooooo long to get shipped). Try your local pet store for something similar, ie enzyme based.
… Or just plain old soda water (I don’t know what the equivelent is in the U.S., but I don’t mean fizzy pop, like lemonade)
As for your vac, try this …
Sprinkle bicarbonate of soda on a dry carpet, (try in an inconspicuous area first), this could be your soiled one, or a different one. With a new vac bag installed, vac it up. Sodium bicarbonate has odour neutralizing properties. It might help on your carpet smell too.