Don't cry over spilled wax. We can think of many wax spills we've seen that have people picking at the hardened wax long afterward.
Even if it's spilled on something as tough as carpet or velvet, though, there's hope for cleaning it up properly. Just give it a try, using this tried and true advice from AT reader, Sisero...
Last night, while vacuuming, my sister knocked over a candle that had been burning for about two hours, spilling hot wax all over my velvet ottoman and the carpet. After trying to pick it out for a half an hour she guiltily fessed up and asked for my help. I turned on the iron to about medium heat, I laid sheets of paper over the wax and ironed over it. The paper soaked up the wax - I had to use quite a big stack of paper to get it all - it even cleaned every ounce of wax from the velvet.
Related Link:
• Cleaning posts from the Archive
• AT How To Archive
(thanks, Sisero!)
Now you tell me.
view RobertTheChicken's profile
Ooh. Is this tip just for cloth? The other day, I spilled wax all over my wood floors and a pair of patent leather shoes. Haven't even tried to get it out yet because I had no idea how to get it off the shoes.
view nicolemari's profile
I think you can put your shoes in the freezer for a bit and the wax should come right off (I've heard this tip but have never tried it). good luck!
view denise123's profile
That is the technique I always use too!!
view Nightberry's profile
Kitchen towels work as well as wax paper, I've also used this on a wooden table. Scraped as much as possible off with a plastic spatula first.
worked perfect, no stain....
view Clairepetrol's profile
Though a different type of surface, this might be of interest to this thread. We had party wax spilled on our porous terrazzo stairs. The ironing trick did not work completely. The folks at stonecare.com recommended D-limonene, a natural citrus solvent, to take up wax from stone and terrazzo. I tried a bit of De-Solv-it that we had in the house, also a citrus cleaner, and poof, the candle wax discoloration finally disappeared without harming our terrazzo.
view wig3000's profile
Yes, the wax was having a party! To clarify, it was a wax mess left over from our fun housewarming party. ;-)
view wig3000's profile
NicoleMarie. For the hardwood floors use your credit card to scrape it off. For the shoes - freeze as recommended above and very carefully push it with the corner of the credit card. Stay close to the wax and away from the patent leather. As a shoe lover I feel your pain. Hope this helps
view Anusha73's profile
very simple.....get some wax paper and an iron. Put the wax paper on the wax, turn on the iron (non-steam) and put the warm iron on top of the wax paper. The warm iron will melt the wax and the waxpaper will absorb the wax.
I use this method every time candle wax drips.
Don't turn on the heat very high, especially since your are dealing with velvet. Also, dont push the iron around. Press and lift....
view ck_1804's profile
you can also use a blow dryer to heat it up.
view dark's profile
I had this happen to my velvet couch too. All you have to do is boil some water pour it all over the spilled wax (it melts the wax) than clean up the water. Worked perfectly:)
view slyvester's profile
NicoleMarie - I know this may sound crazy, but get your hair dryer out for those hardwood floors. I lived in an old house with textured wallpaper and old old old hardwood floor. One afternoon, I knocked over a BRIGHT RED candle. It splattered across the wall and on the floor. With a friend, I used the hair dryer and wiped as it melted. I couldn't believe my eyes - the wallpaper was ivory and the red came right off. I believe I used a paper towel for the wiping. Good luck.... There's a lot you can do besides just scraping. Scraping is tedious and it doesn't even get it all....
view lucygirl060107's profile
Wow! Using the warm iron with the piece of paper was awesome! My boyfriend spilled wax on his brand new DC shoes and we tried to scrape them and it wouldn't work! The paper and warm iron made his shoes look brand new again...thanks.
view Tisha M's profile