How to Remove Kerosene From Carpet

Your carpets can be clean again.

Kerosene is a type of flammable gas that has a few common home uses. One of the most common home uses for kerosene is to fuel kerosene lamps or heaters. As you clean out your lamps or heaters, empty leftover kerosene or refill the kerosene, you could end up with a nasty carpet stain. If you look down as see that you have dripped kerosene onto your carpet, don't panic. Even though this is a flammable substance, there are perfectly safe and effective cleaning methods for removing it.

Things You'll Need

• Baking soda
• Vacuum cleaner
• Cloths
• Dry cleaning solvent
• Container
• Water
• Vinegar
• Dishwashing liquid

Instructions

1. Pour a generous amount of baking soda onto the kerosene stain.

2. Wait about 15 minutes while the baking soda works on absorbing the wet kerosene. Vacuum up the baking soda, along with the kerosene it absorbed.

3. Apply several drops of dry cleaning solvent to a cloth. This product can be purchased from carpet cleaners or from some local grocery stores. Place the cloth over the kerosene on your carpet and dab firmly. Keep dabbing with different areas of the cloth until the solvent, and more of the kerosene, have been absorbed from the carpet.

4. Check out the stain. If you can still see some kerosene on your carpet, get a small container and add 2 cups of warm water to it. Break out your kitchen supplies and pour in 1 tbsp. of dishwashing liquid and 1 tbsp. of plain white vinegar.

5. Dip a cloth into the container and squeeze it. Place it over the kerosene stain and dab firmly as you did with the dry cleaning solvent. Continue until you've removed most of the liquid.

6. Rinse the carpet with cold water and dab with a new cloth to dry.

References

• Good Housekeeping: Stain Buster - Gasoline