So I learned a few things this weekend, in no particular order –
A) Purple smoothies have some real staining power.
B) My husband is just a wee bit klutzy. (well, I kinda knew that one already.)
C) It is a bad idea to let your accident prone husband near your relatively new mattress with a purple smoothie
D) There are some great resources on the internet to deal with everything, including unintentionally decorated purple bedrooms.
So I will say that when I first saw my husband’s artistic expression, I slightly freaked.
I had always been really careful around the mattress (I had a water proof mattress protector. Don’t ask how the spill got around it.) and never envisioned quite an impressive disaster. Then I remembered the good old world wide web. Surely somebody out there would be able to offer some sage advice on stain removal.
I will say that most of what I immediately found had more to do with bodily fluid stains. Ewwwww. But hey, shit happens. Quite literally it seems. I would say the smoothie disaster is quite rare. But I knew that someone out there had a husband as klutzy as I have. Or a 5 year old. Well, one of the two.
Needless to say, it took some searching…
But I finally found what I was looking for on good old Ehow.com. Was I really to entrust an unknown Ehow contributor to save my mattress? A stain removal attempt comes with risks. Use the wrong product and you now have an even more magnificent stain than you started with. Needless to say, I didn’t see any other choices so I did a silent prayer to the Ehow Gods and gave it a shot.
What happened next?
I didn’t believe it but the color purple vacated my mattress! Thank you Ehow! I really couldn’t have done it without you.
Anyway, because you never know if this will happen to you, I’m going to pass along Mr. Ehow’s advice. I’m sure this can be used to clean up a multitude of mattress disasters. Or you can always check out the article for yourself here:
Tools
Terry cloths
Hydrogen peroxide
Baking Soda
Borox
Spray bottle
What to do..
First pat down the stain. Then add the hydrogen peroxide to the spray bottle and spray the hydrogen peroxide on the stain. Let sit 5-8 minutes and then pat dry.
Sprinkle baking soda on the stain area and let sit for a few hours. (What does a few mean? I guessed about 3, but I imagine it depends on the severity of the stain). Then wipe down baking soda with a terry cloth.
If stain persists…
Sprinkle Borox on the stain and rub in with a terry cloth. (Make sure to use a mask and gloves for this one and remove kids and pets from the room.) Allow it to sit for a few minutes and vacuum to remove.
Repeat if necessary, ventilate room and allow to air dry.
Sleep is super important for health.
And a good night’s sleep starts with a quality mattress. I’m grateful that Ehow guy helped my mattress provide restorative sleep for yet another day!
Next week we will be back to our normally scheduled health and wellness programming. (That is, barring any future husband created explosions or catastrophes.)
It is amazing what you can find out on the web. And like your husband I too am a Klutz. It is nice to have a wife like you who looks things up on how to clean them. Because your husband would agree with me, if he was not married, it would remain purple forever.
William, that really made me laugh! I read your comment to my husband and he agreed that, left to his own devices, our mattress would certainly still be purple.
Oh my! I think I might have freaked too! But like you, I had a disaster with olive oil on a couch and found the solution on the WWW too! I now think of Google as a friend:) Glad you got the purple out! Whew!
Oh no! Not olive oil on the couch! Glad you used the web to get it out!
Thank you Erica for sharing this. I really learned a lot especially the part…to love my husband “even how many times…..”
I know Mahal! You have to love them…even when they screw up!
I would have been so upset. I find mattress shopping difficult and when I get a new one home I’m almost afraid to sleep on it – it looks so nice and new. But isn’t it amazing what you can find on the Internet. I’ve found a lot of useful cleaning tips.
Donna, I said to my husband that even though I lived before the mainstream invention of the world wide web, I can’t picture how people lived without it (even if I was one of the people who lived without it!)
You are one determined lady if you were able to find out how to remove purple smoothie stains from a mattress. Well done, and even better, no harmful chemicals, although you were smart with the warnings around Borox. I’ll bet after that, you even slept better feeling proud of yourself.
Thanks for calling me determined Lenie! I did feel a lot calmer after it was addressed.
You’re funny Erica. We often entertain and when we do we have anything someone might want to drink, like red wine. One of our closest friends one spilled half his glass, on our once white carpet in the family room. Thank goodness for the spray bottles of Wine Away. Works on any red stain, and I imagine purple too. I always have a bottle in the cabinet. Best way to let friends know, “no problem with that spill,” so you can enjoy the rest of the visit.
I had never heard of Wine Away Patricia, but sounds like a wonderful invention! I once had a party and my friend dropped red wine all over our carpet. The only thing I had in the house was Nature’s Miracle which is wonderful at getting out pet stains. Needless to say, it got out the red wine too! I don’t have that anymore, so if we have a wine spill, I will definitely look for Wine Away.
As I read this I’m contemplating the stain on the rug where my dog threw up this morning and the fact that the first two products I sprayed on it have not yet eradicated the disgusting yellowish color. Ah, but your post gives me renewed hope. If you can get a purple smoothie stain out of your mattress surely I can get rid of a small dog puke stain on the carpet.
Yes, the inevitable dog throw-up stain. Hearing about this makes me happy that my current home has hardwood floors as I’ve had many of those throw-up dilemmas in the past. I talked about this in my previous comment with Patricia, but Nature’s Miracle is one of the best stain removers I’ve ever used. It gets out EVERYTHING! I would recommending keeping some of that on hand for future throw up stains!
Thank you. What a helpful blog post. Quite some time ago, I had the distinct “non-pleasure” of a blueberry-pomegranate smoothie spilled on a brand new lime green tee-shirt. What a pain! “What sets this kind of stain? Should the water be hot or cold?” Part of the pain was all the contradictory advice. I was finally successful. I can’t remember exactly what I did but your advice about the baking powder and borox resonates. I need to bookmark your advice and hope I never need to use it! 🙂
Those were some of the same questions I asked myself Ramona. I was so scared to do anything at first for fear of doing the wrong thing. And while I’m glad you bookmarked this, I hope you never need it either!
I hope not to have this particular disaster but I’ve certainly had some of my own and have been so happy to be able to use the internet to find remedies. I guess none of us has unique accidents and that’s a good thing! Note to self: don’t allow purple smoothies outside of the kitchen!
That is true Beth. Every disaster that happens has surely happened before. And yes, don’t let smoothies out of your kitchen!
Now see my first thought would have been “how do I dye the rest of the mattress purple” :). Glad there are those with other thoughts.
Hahahaha! Too funny Tim!
Yikes! I’m so glad to know about this, although I’m dying to hear more details of how this catastrophe unfolded. 🙂
I wish the story was actually good Meredith. My husband, running back in the room to get something on his way out, put the smoothie down for a second. He then picked it up by its lid and learned that the lid wasn’t really on. Oops!
Wow, while I don’t see how I could possibly end up with a purple smoothy stain on my mattress any time soon – or at all – you have inspired me to take a closer look at ehow. I am familiar with the site but have never taken the time to check it out – I will remedy that in the near future. Thanks!
I wasn’t too familiar with Ehow either Marquita. Just came across the listing in a google search. I was pretty impressed that it had listing on juice stains since that was hard to find.
Wow! Thanks for sharing this stain removal trick. Will give it a try.
Thanks for reading and I hope you never need it!
Well, I am glad you were resourceful and got it out. Baking soda and peroxide seem to have myriad uses. Your story reminded me of some guests we had last summer. Their infant peed on our mattress. They left on an errand and returned with a brand new one for us! I was shocked (but secretly thrilled)
Wow, that was really responsible of them! I doubt most people would do that. My dog peed on our bed when she was little and angry at us (she stopped doing that once we let her sleep on the bed). We were lucky because the multiple blankets and waterproof mattress protector kept 100% of the pee off of the mattress. Otherwise, that would have been really gross.
It is nice to know about this tip. Where there is need there is a way… I think this is true in all the cases. Baking soda and hydrogen peroxide to a lot of stuff if used in a specific way.
Thank you for sharing this tip.
Gotta love the internet. If it can help you get purple smoothie out of a new mattress it can do anything. Like I always say, “Just Google it!”