How To Get Marshmallow Out Of Carpet (Step-by-Step Guide)
Marshmallows are an amazing part of almost every summer and fall season. You can’t make smores without them, and let’s just face it, Halloween wouldn’t be the same without marshmallow ghost treats. The thing is, sometimes, they can end up in awkward places…such as the carpet. So how do you get this sugary treat off your rug?
Rub an ice cube over the marshmallow on the carpet to freeze it and make it easier to clean. Take a putty knife and scrape it across the marshmallow to get it out of the carpet fabric. Apply rug shampoo when the stain is mostly gone and scrub it to remove it entirely.
Admittedly, getting ooey, gooey marshmallows in your carpet is not exactly the most common thing you’ll ever hear. Thankfully, this is one of the easiest types of stains to clean. All you need to do next is read this guide so you’ll know what to do.
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Should You Call Professional Carpet Cleaners For This Mess?
While there are a lot of problems that could warrant a call to your local cleaning company, marshmallows are rarely, if ever a serious enough problem for a professional job. Even with the most delicate carpet, you should expect to be able to get marshmallows out of it with the right technique. So, save yourself the money. DIY it, already!
What Happens If You Don’t Remove The Marshmallow From Your Carpeting?
Marshmallows are not hard to clean, but they do have a bit of a learning curve. And it can take a while to actually put in the work to get the gunk off the carpet. Let’s say that you decide to be a little gross, and figured that you could just forget about the marshmallow for a while. What can you expect to have happen? Well…
- You can get ants and other pests. This is the most obvious outcome, but it’s still worth discussing. Bugs love sugar, and so do mice. If you are trying to avoid having a pest outbreak, or if you are already struggling with pests, you need to get rid of the marshmallow stain ASAP.
- The sugar may actually harm the carpet fiber. Like with other staining materials, the stickiness of the sugar can cause your carpet fibers to get permanently glued together or encourage rot in organic fibers. It all depends on how long you end up having the stuff in your fiber.
- Sugar can also kickstart certain types of mold. It’s food, after all. Food tends to get moldy, and that includes marshmallows in some cases. Addressing that stain prevents you from having black or green spots all over your carpet.
How Hard Is It To Clean Up Marshmallow From Your Carpet?
There’s some good news and some bad news when it comes to marshmallow cleanup. The bad news is that cleaning up marshmallows tends to be a longer process than most people want to deal with. Unlike some stains, which can be cleaned in a matter of minutes, many methods of removing marshmallows can take up to half an hour or more to complete.
The good news is that the marshmallow spill will be easy to clean. You won’t need any special solvents to do it and you won’t have to whip out the white vinegar if you don’t want it. So while it is a pesky stain, it won’t be like bike grease or salsa when it comes to the damage it can wreak. You can DIY it without much issue.
Pick Up That Marshmallow!
If you just spilled a bunch of dry, solid marshmallows on your carpet, you don’t have to do much to get rid of them. All you need to do is pick them up with your hands or with a scoop or shovel. Of course, if you’re searching this up, a little bit of melting action probably happened. That’s why you need to return the marshmallow to a solid state.
Melted marshmallows are a little too malleable to be easy to clean. Thankfully, melted marshmallows are fairly easy to refreeze and harden. All you need to do is press ice against them until they harden, then scrape away the bulk of the marshmallow with a butter knife.
Can You Shampoo Away Melted Marshmallow?
Though picking up frozen marshmallow tends to be the most effective method to use, some people just don’t like the idea of rubbing ice on the ground for up to three minutes. It hurts your hands and that makes it annoying for people who have arthritis. Thankfully, marshmallows are easy to clean for one reason: marshmallows break down when put in enough water.
This means there are several ways you can use water to break down the sugars in marshmallows. The best ones include:
- Use a wet rag to soak the marshmallows and scrub them away. This method takes a lot longer than the freezing method, and for a while, it’ll look like you are just making a bigger mess. However, it works if you’re willing to stick with it for long enough.
- Get a rug shampooer and use it on the stain. You might need to add extra water, and it will take a while, but getting a rug shampooer can help you get the majority of marshmallow gunk out fairly quickly. Since marshmallows are water soluble, you should be able to remove it entirely sooner rather than later.
- Or just use soap and water, plus an extractor. A little bit of dish soap in warm water plus a carpet extractor will work just fine as well. Extractors tend to have the benefit of being able to be more active and aggressive when they remove clumped up marshmallow, which is a blessing in this case.
It’s worth noting that regular store-bought marshmallows will be able to be cleaned thoroughly through the use of water alone. However, if you have marshmallows that are made with shredded marshmallow root, the root itself will need to be vacuumed up in order for the stain to go away completely.
Is There Any Moment Where You Could Possibly Need To Call The Cleaners For A Marshmallow Stain?
I’ll be honest, for the most part, you should be able to handle any type of marshmallow stain on your own without any issue. However, if you are disabled or if you have a carpet that is exceedingly rare and want to take care of it, a call to the cleaners might be a good decision. Just be forewarned, it’s often a pricey matter.
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Related Questions
How much does professional carpet cleaning cost?
It all depends on where you live, how many rooms you want to clean up, and what your carpet is made of. It can take between $50 to $150 per room for a carpet cleaner to address your stains, with many cleaners requiring at least three rooms per visit. Some may also charge an additional fee for specialized spot removal of up to $20.If you just have a rug that needs cleaning, taking it to a full-service laundromat might be a better option. Individual prices can vary so greatly, though, that it’s difficult to fully ascertain what you can expect to see happen.
Is marshmallow root still used to make marshmallows on a commercial level?
If you’re worried that you might have additional plant fibers to lift up from your carpet, then you have some good news in store. The vast majority of commercial marshmallow companies do not use the actual plant in their recipes anymore. If you are uncertain about the ingredients being used in your mallows, check the back of the package’s ingredient list to find out.
Can water wash away gelatin?
Much like with the sugar found in marshmallows, gelatin tends to dissolve if given enough time and water. However, it often helps to have a little bit of cleaning solvent, like some water mixed with dish soap, to speed up the overall process. Gelatin rarely ever stains unless it melts into the carpet fibers, so you can rest assured that you won’t need to worry too much about removing this stain.
Ossiana Tepfenhart is an expert writer, focusing on interior design and general home tips. Writing is her life, and it's what she does best. Her interests include art and real estate investments.
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