Removing Blood Stains from Fabric
Did you recently host bare knuckle fighting in your living room and now need a way to clean up the blood?
Well, you are not alone. But seriously, getting blood stains on clothing, carpeting, and furniture, happens more often than you might think. There are some simple ways to get blood out of virtually anything.
Like with any spill or accident you want to get to it as soon as possible, but even if the blood has dried and set in you can still get your fabrics looking good as new.
Clothing:
The key to getting blood off of clothing is to soak it in cold water. Don’t use warm or hot water as this can actually cause the blood to set more. The heat will actually "cook" the blood stain.
Leave your fabric soaking in cold water for about five minutes. If that doesn’t get all of the blood off you can pour salt water on your clothing and rub it in a bit. With another rinse this should get the blood completely off of the clothing.
If the blood has been left to dry on the cloth you can also try letting it soak in water, but it probably won’t get all of the blood off. Using a small amount of shampoo on the soaked clothing and rubbing it in until it starts to foam will often get dried blood off of many different types of clothing.
Peroxide and vinegar can also be used to help get out dried in blood stains. It is a good idea to so a small test area to make sure that the fabric does not get damaged.
As a last resort on set in blood stains, you can try saliva- Yes, plain old spit. Wet the stain with saliva and let it sit for 12 hours or so. Saliva contains digestive enzymes and will work to remove and break up the blood stain. You can try this several times if it looks like the blood stain is being removed.
Furniture Fabric:
Blood stains on furniture fabric are a little more difficult to remove because they cannot be rinsed completely. Use a wet washcloth or ice cube to get the blood stain wet. Once the fabric is fully saturated use a clean dry towel to blot the stain. Continue wetting and blotting to get up as much blood as possible.
If the blood stain remains, use household strength hydrogen peroxide solution. Pour the hydrogen peroxide directly on the blood stain let it sit for a minute or two and blot completely with a clean dry cloth.
The longer the blood stain has been on your furniture the longer it will take to remove with the water and hydrogen peroxide. As long as the blood stain has not been treated with heat (hot water) you should be able to remove the blood completely. Just remember to treat the fabric gently to avoid fraying the fabric. Blot don't rub. The cleaning solution is what will remove the stain, not scrubbing.
Blood Stains on Dry Clean Fabrics:
Rinse the stain in cold water to remove as much as possible. Dab the stain with a solution of 50/50 cold water and ammonia. Rinse the stain again in cold water to remove the ammonia. Continue dabbing at the fabric with a clean dry towel, blending the edges of the wet fabric into the dry fabric.
Removing Blood From Carpeting:
If there is a massive amount of blood that has soaking into the carpet and padding this will have to be removed. It is unsanitary to try and clean up a large amount of blood. It is better to get new carpet and make sure the area is clear.
If you are dealing with spots of blood or a smaller amount of blood you can get it out with peroxide. Make a solution of peroxide and water and spray it over the area. Then blot the wet area with a clean dry towel.
Make sure that you blot and not rub. Rubbing will just push the blood further into the fibers of the carpeting. If the blood has been sitting for awhile and has dried you can still use the peroxide solution, but you are going to need to let it sit for much longer before trying to blot it up.
