How to Remove Tomato Juice from Carpet

A few weeks ago, lil man accidentally spilled some V8 on our light green carpet in the living room. Our carpet is 12 years old now so it actually looks much lighter. I thought it was a lost cause, but went through the process of trying to save the carpet anyway.

I had a friend who swore by baking soda so I decided to give it a try.

Here are the steps I took:

1. Use paper towel to soak up the tomato juice as much as possible. Basically take the paper towel and push the paper towel into the carpet. I had to use several pieces of paper towel until the red started to fade on the paper towel
2. Put water onto the stained areas. I was generous on the amount of water, but don’t douse it. You want it to be damp enough that the baking soda will soak into the bottom of the carpet not just the surface. This way the baking soda will soak into the carpet not just the surface
3. Sprinkle or pour the baking soda onto the carpet to cover the red stain. I use Arm & Hammer

Here’s the photo of how I poured baking soda onto the carpet

The next step is basically wait it out. I let this sit for 24 hours. Here’s what I did after:

1. Vacuum the baking soda off the carpet
2. You’ll notice that the baking soda will have settled in and hardened a little bit. You can use your finger to break it apart a bit so the vacuum came pick it up
3. I saw a light red stain still on the carpet so I redid the process again

After 48 hours, here’s the after photo:

Awesome or what?! I’m so excited. I’m swearing by baking soda from now on. I used a toothbrush and some water to brush off the small bits of baking soda that hardened onto the carpet. Carpet looks great and no one can tell there was ever tomato juice there.