Don't Cry Over Spilt Paint

I've never been an expert on household cleaning tips, but today I had an experience that definitely made for a lot of learning in the cleaning department. I was cooking lunch today when my large football-player brother came thundering into the kitchen with the most worried expression I've ever seen on his face. "Virginia, can you help me?" he asked as tears welled up in his eyes. I knew something had to be wrong because it's not every day that my monster of a brother admits that he still needs help from his big sister. I looked down and saw that his hands were covered in what appeared to be some kind of paint. He then explained to me that he had accidentally knocked over one of the cans of paint that was stacked in my parents' room and it had spilled onto the floor. When we made it back to their room I was horrified to see a thick puddle of white wall paint soaking into the dark green carpet. I thought to myself there was no way that was ever going to come out of the carpet, and told Orin the floor would probably have to be replaced, but we were going to do what we could. I first had him fetch me a serving spoon from the kitchen, and spooned the bulk of the paint into a bucket. Then we finally broke down and told Daddy what had happened, and when he got over the initial shock he advised us on what to do. And thus comes todays home cleaning lesson of the day.

How to Clean Wall Paint Out of Carpet:

Step 1: Start by getting the bulk of the paint off without spreading the stain. Spoon it, scoop it with your hands, wipe it up, it doesn't matter. Just get the carpet cleaned to a stain, rather than a puddle.

Step 2: Whatever you do, DON'T let the paint dry! Once it's dry, it's all over. Luckily the paint is water soluble, so it's important that, after blotting up as much paint as you can with dry towels, you wet down the area and sort of flood it with water using a wet towel.

Step 3: Scrub the area with the wet towel and get out as much paint as possible, then rinse the towel and repeat. (We worked with a system in which he scrubbed while I cleaned out the towel, so we had 2 towels going at one time. That way the stain can't dry out while you're rinsing.)

Step 4: Work this way until you feel like you've gotten as much paint up as you can, and the floor is fully saturated with water. Then use dry towels to absorb excess liquid.

Step 5: After following these steps you should eventually reach a point at which the stain is invisible, or pretty darn close to it. Turn on the fan and let it dry out so the water won't damage any wood beneath the floor.

So there you have it. It is in fact possible to remove an entire can's worth of spilled wall paint out of a carpet. Hope this helps!