Remember when you used to love messing around with playdough? It was fun, right? Now you are older, do you enjoy removing the stain stuck on your carpets? Automatically no!

Play-doh or playdough is familiar toy that children enjoy globally. It is made of a polymer that makes it sticky and moldable. Playdough enriches children’s minds making them come up with different sizes, animals, shapes, and anything that comes across their minds. It has a broad demographic of young adults to toddlers.

However, playdough can get stuck in carpets and all sorts of places. But here are ways you can use to get it out of the rug.

What you’ll need to Get Playdough out of Carpet

  • Soap and water (optional)
  • Vacuum cleaner
  • Brush, spoon or knife
  • A fresh piece of Play-Doh
  • Compressed air

1. To begin, let the playdough dry entirely for some time before you attempt to remove it from the carpet. Immediately it feels hard when you touch it, and you’ll know that it has dried. This sounds counterintuitive but dry, and stiff playdough is easy to loosen from the carpet.

  • Perhaps you might be tempted to apply soap and hot water to remove the stain, but you must resist it!  The heat will cause the playdough to melt on the carpet further.
  • Also, if the stain is located around the high-traffic area such as the hallway, ensure you place a cardboard box on the playdough stain. This will keep people from stepping on the playdough accidentally and make it hard to clean.

2. Hold the can containing compressed air a few inches away from the carpet then spray the playdough stain.  Doing this freezes the stain making it dry naturally as it creates a hardening effect allowing the stain to dry shortly.

  • Ensure your fingers are some distance away from the cold air as you spray.
  • The playdough looks frozen when it’s ready for cleaning.

3. Immediately the playdough dries up, blot it away gently using a paper towel or use a dull knife to scrape it off. You can also do this using your hands. Don’t worry about damaging your skin as playdough is safe.

4. Brush or scrape repeatedly on the same way to lessen the dried playdough on the carpet fibers.

  • Never brush the carpet in a circular motion as this can force the playdough to get further in your carpet.
  • Also, a sharp knife can damage your carpet’s fibers.

5. The next thing to do is applying some rubbing alcohol on a piece of towel, cloth, or a cotton ball. With that done, blot the affected area within the affected area until the spot is free from any playdough residue.

  • Ensure you don’t use excess alcohol on the affected area as this might destroy the carpet backing, thus weakening the bond between the fabrics.
  • You can as well test the alcohol on an inconspicuous spot like the edge of the room or under a table before you apply it on the stain to ensure that your carpet doesn’t get damaged.

6. With that done, all the playdough will have been removed. Congratulations! But if there are still some stains left, continue with the cleaning process.

At this point, you’ll have to look for an alternative.

Use Mild Detergent

To do this, you’ll have to use a small amount of mild detergent solution.

1. Apply the detergent on a cotton or a piece of cloth then apply it on the affected area. Continue applying until the stain is removed, but make sure it doesn’t have bleach that can cause discoloration.

2. After that, wash the soap away using cold water. You can use a spray bottle with cold water to wet the area. After that, remove the soap by wiping the carpet using a clean towel.

  • Use cold water: Warm water will melt the stubborn playdough to melt on the carpet fibers.
  • In case the detergent fails to remove the hard and stubborn stains, apply hydrogen peroxide on your carpet using a clean paper towel. Use only 3% of hydrogen peroxide to moisten the area.
  • Allow it stand for about 1 hour then wipe it to dry. Alternatively, you can use a stain remover like Resolve to remove stubborn stains.

 Dry the area

1. Eliminate all water from the area you’ve been cleaning using regular or clean paper towels. Make sure you press the paper towels on the carpet to suck up all the water.

  • Alternatively, you can use a block or heavy book for a couple of hours to help in soaking up the water.

2. Use a hairdryer if you want the spot to dry quickly. But ensure you use its lowest setting until all water is dried up. Put your hand on the carpet to see whether it’s dried.

  • Before using a hairdryer, be sure that all playdough has been removed, or else, you can reintroduce the stain on the carpet.

3. Finally, dry your carpet using a desk fan if you lack a hairdryer. Position this equipment on the floor close to the place you’ve been cleaning. Target the fan to allow the air to blow directly on the wet carpet area.

  • You can use an extension cord if you want to get the fan closer to the wet area. The nearer the fan is located to the wet carpet, the more, the better results it will deliver.

And that’s how you can get playdough away from the carpet.