How to Clean Vomit From a Persian Rug

To keep discoloration of the rug to a minimum, always test the cleaner on one small corner of the rug before applying it to the stain. Cleaners can fade dyes in carpets and fabrics--if your rug’s dye is not color-fast you’ll need to take the rug to a professional to avoid this kind of discoloration.

Using Ammonia

1. Put on rubber gloves and use a large spoon or spatula to remove larger particles of the vomit from the rug. Dispose of this in a trash bag.

2. Dampen paper towels and blot the area. Create an ammonia cleaning solution--fill a spray bottle with ½ cup of water and 1tbsp. of colorless ammonia, as suggested by rugratsva.com.

3. Spray the ammonia solution over the vomit stain. This will help neutralize it, according to rugratsva.com. Blot this with dry paper towels.

4. Mix ¼ tsp. of a clear (dye-free and bleach-free) dish detergent with a quart of water in a large bowl. Now, dampen paper towels in this mixture and sponge this over the vomit stain. As you get more of the stain up, switch to new clean paper towels dampened in the cleaning solution.

5. Fill another spray bottle with clean water. Spray the are with this water to dilute the cleaning mixture. Blot it with paper towels and then spray again to dilute more of the mixture--when no staining is left, spray the area once more with the clean water. Place paper towels over the stain and place a rock, brick or paper weight on this to hold it down as it soaks up more moisture--leave it up to an hour.

Using Vinegar

1. Scrape up vomit, using some scraping utensil (spatula, spoon or other). Blot the area with damp paper towels.

2. Create a vinegar and water solution. Thesteamteam.com suggests using 1/3 cup of white vinegar and 2/3 cup of water mixed in a spray bottle. Spray this liberally over the stain.

3. Blot the area with damp paper towels, rubbing the vinegar solution into the carpet. Vinegar will also help with the odor.

4. Use the dish detergent mixture now-- ¼ tsp. of a clear (dye-free and bleach-free) dish detergent mixed with a quart of water in a bowl--to blot the vomit stain.

5. Rinse the area, either by spraying water from a water bottle or by blotting with more damp paper towels until the stain and the cleaning solution is removed. Place paper towels over the stain to absorb more moisture--weigh these down with a paper weight or similar item for an hour.