The Bane of Stains: Egg Yolk

The real question isn’t which came first, the chicken or the egg. The real question is: with all the things in this world that taste just like chicken, why don’t chicken eggs? But that’s not for us to say. We can, however, help you to answer another tough question. How do you remove an egg yolk stain from your carpet? (And we promise not to do any egg or “yolk’s on you” puns – we learned our lesson from the motor oil post.)

Start with the Basics

If you’ve been following this series, you probably realize the first thing you want to do is get up as much of the excess as you can. Try using a spatula, flat knife or spoon. However, you might find it difficult to get up, especially if the yolk is runny. Follow up your chosen utensil with a dry white paper towel, dabbing the stain from the outside in. switch to another corner, or another towel, and keep repeating the process until no more residue is coming up with the towel.

Avoid Heat!

You might be tempted to use hot water or another liquid to flush out the stain, or perhaps try out your steam mop on the stain. Please don’t. Surprisingly, it doesn’t take a lot of heat added to the egg yolk before it becomes a cooked meal – this time, cooked right into your carpet. Make sure your liquid cleaning mixtures are no more than room temperature, and keep the steam mop in the kitchen, for now.

To the Cleaning

First, let’s get rid of the stickiness. Mix a half cup of water with 1 tablespoon of clear household ammonia in a clean spray bottle. You’ll want to saturate the area, but not so much that it seeps down into the carpet backing. Use a white paper towel to blot the area, removing excess moisture.

Next, mix a tablespoon of dish detergent (no bleach or lanolin, please) with two cups of water in a bowl. Dunk in a clean white cloth, then squeeze out the excess. We want it damp, not dripping. Dab the stain, then rinse and repeat until no more yolk is transferring to the cloth. Dampen another cloth with water only and dab the area to rinse it. If you have another spray bottle nearby that only has water in it, you can use that to moisten the area, but be careful of oversaturation. Apply a pad of paper towels with a weight on top of them and allow the area to dry.

If the egg yolk is still present, apply your trusty 3% hydrogen peroxide and let it sit on the stain for an hour. Blot the area and inspect it. If the stain is still there, repeat this step again.

If after all of these steps, the stain is still there, no need to panic. We can help!

The Next Step

What’s the next step? Call Preferred Carpet Care. Something in that egg, or in your carpet, is offering increased resistance. We’ll analyze the stain, verify the best way to remove it, and then proceed with the removal. We might not know why eggs don’t taste like chicken, but we know how to get them both out of your carpet.