How to Clean Spilt Milk On a Carpet - EasyClean Solutions

How to Clean Spilt Milk On a Carpet

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Some liquids falling on carpets are fairly alarming while some liquids pose no real problem to concern yourself with. It is an entirely different reaction if red wine spills on a carpet than just a glass of water. One beverage that can spell bad news for carpets you may not have known about is milk.

Spilled milk on a carpet can cause a foul odour if left untreated and the proteins and enzymes in milk can cause stains as well. With this in mind, you may be wondering how to clean spilled milk on a carpet effectively?

To clean spilled milk out of a carpet, concentrate on soaking up as much of the milk as possible with a cloth or paper towel. Then, gently use a sponge with dish detergent to clean the stain without scrubbing too hard. Sprinkle baking soda over the stain and allow it to remain overnight.

It’s not just an unpleasant smell and unsightly stain to worry about with milk on a carpet, the stain could damage the carpet fibres if left for too long. In this article, we will take a look at the steps to clean spilled milk on a carpet. Read on to find out more.

Cleaning Milk Out of a Carpet: Step-by-Step Guide

To clean milk from your carpet, there are many different approaches you can take. Keep in mind, some methods may be favoured more depending on if your carpet is delicate or can only be cleaned with certain types of cleaning agents. Since all carpets are different, the best method to take is one that ensures your carpet will not be damaged further by cleaning agents or even the manual method of scrubbing the milk out of the carpet fibres.

Furthermore, you may need professional carpet cleaning if the milk stain is older or more prominent on the carpet. But the sooner you act after spilling milk onto the carpet, the easier it becomes to prevent long term damage.

To ensure an effective solution based on your carpet’s durability, we will explore two different solutions you can take to clean spilt milk on carpet surfaces. Here is a list of supplies you will need for both methods:

Supply List for Detergent Method:

  • Paper towels
  • Scrapper (if the milk is dried)
  • 4 cups of warm water/half detergent mixture in a spray bottle
  • Baking soda

Supply List for Vinegar Method:

  • Damp cloth
  • Scrapper (if the milk is dried)
  • Bowl of vinegar and cold water
  • Baking soda

Cleaning Milk Out of Carpet With Water and Detergent

Washing detergent is generally safe for carpet since the cleaning agent is formulated to wash clothes as safely as possible. With this in mind, it is perfectly understandable that some carpet owners do not like the idea of using detergent on their carpet to avoid giving the fibres a washed-out and faded look. If this is not a concern that you have, you will find that detergent can work wonders to clean up a small stain; if you prefer to avoid detergent, skip to the second method.

First, it is important to soak up as much of the milk as you can if the spill just occurred. Even if the stain is older, it is still helpful to blot the stain since dried milk is still an organic compound that can be removed no matter what state it is in. It is also helpful to not immediately scrub into the milk stain to try and remove as much of the milk as possible since this could damage the carpet fibres.

Use a few paper towels and simply press down on the spilt milk with force. Use more paper towels if necessary and remember the goal here is to lift up as much of the milk as you can from the affected area. Once the affected area has been blotted, using a clean cloth or paper towel, dip gently wipe over the surface of the spilled or dried milk as this can also help to remove clumps of milk that have set onto the surface of the carpet fibres.

Then, you can spray the affected area many times over with the water and detergent mixture directly onto the stain. Allow this to set into the carpet for about 30 minutes so the detergent can mix into the milk and help loosen it. The next step is to gently scrub the stain up and down and try to avoid scrubbing too hard since this can damage the fibres and potentially cause the milk stain to become worse.

For dried milk, the key is to remove milk that has hardened and solidified as this can also help to release the stain a bit more. Additionally, for a dried milk stain, you may need to scrape up as much of the dried milk as you can since a vacuum alone will likely not be able to loosen the milk on its own. If you don’t have a scrapper, a dull knife may also be helpful to release the clumped milk.

For either scenario, the last step is to sprinkle the cleaned area with baking soda overnight. Baking soda will help to neutralise the compounds in the milk and also help to absorb the remaining milk smell from the carpet. Once the carpet dries, vacuum up the baking soda the next day and you should also notice that the stain is gone.

Note: If you do not have baking soda, fresh unused coffee grounds can be substituted to help neutralise the milk odour and dry up the stain. Also, dish soap can be used instead of clothes detergent, but dish soap can be a bit harsher on carpet fibres than clothes detergent.

Cleaning Milk Out of Carpet With Vinegar

You can also use vinegar for removing milk stains instead of detergent. Each step is the same except you will want to do away with the warm water and use cold water and vinegar instead. The cold water will help to cut down some on the acidity of the vinegar and not cause a possible reaction like warmer water would.

Do all of the following above except make sure to blot the stain with the vinegar solution and avoid scrubbing at all; simply let the vinegar do the work. If the area has a strong vinegar smell after the cleaning process, be sure to add baking soda to the stain to help reduce this smell.

No matter which method you choose, a milk stain is only as severe as the area of the carpet it affects. If large amounts of milk are spilled onto multiple areas of the carpet, consider hiring a professional carpet cleaning service to handle this larger problem.

How do you get milk smell out of carpet?

Milk has a very peculiar smell, especially if the milk has been allowed to sour. To get the milk smell out of carpet fibres, you have to completely remove all milk on carpet surfaces to get rid of the odour that has attached to the fibres.

You can sometimes achieve this if you vacuum the area thoroughly, but more often than not, getting rid of the milk smell will require a powerful will require a strong, and effective cleaner. Professional carpet cleaning has experience with milk stains specifically and can eliminate the odours completely.

If the smell is too unpleasant, you can consider sprinkling baking soda over the stain and allowing it sit overnight. Simply vacuum up the baking soda the next day and see if this helps to reduce the smell.

Does sour milk smell go away?

Since sour milk has such a strong and pungent odour, this smell will not just go away on its own as time passes. You will have to address the area in question and remove the milk from the area of the carpet that has the stain. Once milk sours, the smell becomes rancid and permeates throughout the area in which the milk is saturated.

Just like any organic matter, milk rots as time goes by, and if the sour milk is in the form of a stain, this can cause the entire surrounding area to smell like rancid milk which is only going to make things worse.

How do you get rid of the smell of spilt milk?

The first way is to be sure to blot the area thoroughly to remove any excess milk and then immediately clean the stain. After this, you can use coffee or baking soda to help neutralise the odours and ensure that the milk dries completely. When using coffee grounds instead of baking soda, be sure to completely cover the stain in the grounds to smother the odour as much as possible.

Air fresheners can only go so far, you will need to get the stains out completely to remove the smell of spilt milk from carpet. To get milk smells out of the surrounding air, consider opening a window and airing out the room completely to disperse the smell outside.


Using a carpet cleaning service is one of the best decisions you can make to remove a problematic stain like milk. Our team of highly skilled experts will ensure that all carpet cleans are carried out to the best quality and customer satisfaction is guaranteed. We can provide the required services to eliminate the milk stain and smell, as well as answer any questions you may have about this common problem.

If you are looking for a professional carpet cleaning service in any of the areas we cover, then contact us today.

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