Cleaning Help

[wanderingenough]

Ok, home decorating code red! I have a giant living room rug that I got a great deal on. Two nights ago, R was eating mandarin oranges at his little table and apparently was dropping orange juice everywhere on the rug without us realizing. We only noticed yesterday when we started to smell this AWFUL smell. Apparently the juice has seeped into the backing of the rug and dried. Our whole living room now smells like rotting fruit. 

It's a plush rug like this, but huge.

My H is ready to toss the rug, but we don't really have the money to replace right now.

I tried buying a carpet cleaning spray at Publix and scrubbing the front and back. That didn't work. I tried Febreeze. That didn't work.

Any other ideas? I'm thinking about laying it out in the sun, but my H thinks that is a waste of time. Ugh.

[estrellita]

Laying it in the sun would help with any staining but I'm not sure about the smell.. Maybe? What about baking soda (mixed with essential oils if you want), letting it sit for a while then vacuuming it up? Or a pet stain spray? Those usually get cat pee smell out which is STRONG so it's possible that might work?

[MrsMB]

Yeah, I was going to say purification oil would be my best bet. other than that, I'm not sure. I'm so sorry

[ewall]

I would sprinkle heavily with baking soda (both sides?) and let that sit for a day, then try vacuuming.

I have a Bissell wet/dry vac that can be used on area rugs, but I doubt you want to buy a new appliance when you could put that money toward a new rug!

[amaranth]

We had some moldy rugs from basement flooding. A mixture of lemon juice and vinegar, then laying them out in the sun, removed all the stains and smell! I was beyond shocked since it was just a random google hail mary. (I used a antibacterial spray after that to prevent mold from regrowing)