I know its winter when the red wine stains on carpets, curtains and upholstery start coming in, however this was unique in that the call came in late on Saturday night. It was my panic stricken daughter who was away at the Vaal River with her boyfriend and friends.
The call went “Mom! What do you do with red wine?” In a half asleep state I responded drink it. No Mom if you spill it on a carpet! Oh… I was instantly in work mode … find some Lecol lemon juice in a green bottle it has to be Lecol or a very dry white wine DO NOT USE SALT ! Put the lemon juice or dry white wine on a white towel and dab the spill, the carpet should come clean. Thanks Mom sorry to have woken you.
The following morning while I was preparing Sunday lunch for friends and family I got another call. Mom can I bring the carpet home it’s a Persian and before I got off the phone to you last night someone else had put salt on it.
Great…., Yes, I will see whether we can clean the Persian carpet. Really what else does a mother say? Later that afternoon a car load of buff young men arrived bearing a pale gold and cream Persian with large purple red wine stains.
It was transferred to my car and every one tucked in to pudding .The next day at the factory we set to work on the Persian carpet. Fortunately the apparent dowsing with salt must have been very scant as it had not set the dye of the red wine and as a result we were able to work our magic with the concentrated Lecol lemon juice in the green bottle. Yes I am being pedantic about it, as other brands don’t work, not even Woollies’.
The end result the owner of the Persian carpet was so thrilled with her carpets restored beauty she brought it back to her home in Bryanston. We had not only got rid of the red wine stains but also the assault from her grand children from over the past few years . As a result we have had a drove of carpet cleaning work from related family members. I never got the full story on what happened and who were the guilty parties. But it’s not such a bad thing to be the Carpet Cleaners daughter!