Procrastination is a little like candle wax, when you think about it.
One day, you’re sitting on the couch and something you need to take care of comes to mind. You think, “I’ll do it tomorrow” and the fuse on the candle is lit.
The longer you put off your thing, the more the need to do it melts into your brain. And then there’s another thing, and another thing, and another thing – and all the things gloop together in a very immovable blob. Sooner or later, you have procrastination melted all in and around your gray matter, seeping and hardening between the synapses, melding you ever more firmly to the floor. Or the couch. Or the bed.
You look again at the first thing you put off – perhaps it’s setting an appointment, or calling a friend, or cleaning the bathroom – and it seems huge and fixed. Impossible to take care of. A monumental stain that, just yesterday, was nothing but a tiny drip you could have wiped up immediately. But now it has an entire day’s worth of other things you put off all piled on top of it.
So you stare at the thing for a while, and you hate it. You hide it under the rug and try to find another working solution, but the original mess is still there.
And exactly like real candle wax melted and hardened into your carpet, all you need is a little heat, a little pressure, and willingness to get rid of it forever.
So while we’re not going to tackle your procrastination tendencies (we can do that tomorrow or something), maybe learning how frickin’ amazingly easy it is to get candle wax out of the carpet will inspire you to apply a little heat and pressure to the other things you’ve been putting off. (You know, things like getting that candle wax out of the carpet.)
Remove Candle Wax From Your Carpet, Forever, In SECONDS
Last week, after hauling all of our furniture out of our old place, I discovered that blob (above) of candle wax sealed into the carpet.
(By “discovered,” I mean “remembered,” because I totally procrastinated and forgot about it.)
Visions of our deposit flushing down the toilet flashed through my brain, until I remembered that the internet is full of answers to all the unsolvable problems of the universe. And it turns out, this solution isn’t anything new – it’s plastered all over the place. But because I hadn’t heard of it before now, I thought perhaps some of you might benefit from this magical (and seriously INSTANT) solution that takes care of the problem forever and ever.
And let me tell you something, sisters and brothers, if taking care of everything in your life could be this much fun, we wouldn’t even understand what the word procrastination means.
So How Do You Get Candle Wax Out of the Carpet?
Here’s what you need (and, yes, this is EVERYTHING YOU NEED):
An iron and a paper bag (you could also use a paper towel, I’m sure).
Oh …
You also need hardened candle wax that’s melted into your carpet. However, I don’t suggest acquiring that unless you absolutely have to. And by “have to,” I mean, “accidentally made happen.” For as exciting as this cleaning job is, don’t purposely melt things into your carpet. Unless you want to. Who am I to judge?
The first thing I did was: I kind of picked at the candle wax and broke it up a bit with my fingernails. This isn’t a necessary step. I just did it. And then I vacuumed up the little pieces, until I had a spot that looked like this:
Next, you want to heat up your iron to a very low setting (I set mine on 3) and make sure it’s only hot enough to melt the wax, and not the synthetic fibers of your carpet (if your carpet has synthetic fibers).
This is also a great time to rip the bag into large-ish pieces until you only have one layer of paper.
Place the single-layer of paper bag over the spot o’ wax – making sure you’re not ironing in any ink from the bag onto the carpet.
Apply slight pressure over the wax areas – and you’ll immediately notice little spots of wax transferring from the carpet to the paper bag.
Don’t hold your iron over it for too long. Just little pushes and moves of the bag around the wax works really well.
I got the tingles watching these little spots of wax show up on the backside of the bag. It was magic. I had to take this show on the road.
Continue lightly pressing down and moving the iron and paper around the wax area until you no longer see spots showing up. You may need to use several pieces of paper bag to get it all out. I also kind of smushed the carpet down in places to get to the areas where the wax was nearly touching the floor.
The results?
Amazing. Like the wax never even existed. Good as new. Fresh and fancy.
(A little like your mind will be when you take care of the other things you’ve been putting off, right?)
Play the game with me!
Can you see it? Well, can you?
After I was done, I dragged Skip into the room and made him point to the area where it was. He couldn’t do it! And when we walked in with the leasing agent during the final walk through, I held my breath until she said, “Wow! Everything looks just absolutely perfect, Betty.” (Also, she said that about the bathrooms which, by the way, I cleaned entirely with vinegar and water, but that’s another story.)
SUCCESS – and a slightly silly feeling for putting off cleaning that mess up for such a long time.
So, You See, A Little Heat and a Little Pressure …
… and there’s no job too procrastinated that your capable self can’t take care of.
So today, I challenge you to take a warm iron and a paper bag to just one – just one – thing in your life that you’ve been putting off for a while. See if you can’t find that magical moment when the wax of worry transfers to the paper bag of doing (you like my metaphors, don’t you?).
Even, and especially, if it’s getting candle wax out of your carpet.
Go be awesome.
I will have to remember this! Thanks for your lovely, funny posts 🙂
Such an enjoyable read! thank you!
Thanks for the great tip! Wonder if it would work on a t-shirt?
Thanks! Now I learned my thing for the day! 🙂
I used this method when I was a teenager – and ended up burning the carpet, making a worst mess than I’d begun with so if you’re intending to do this at home: PLEASE BE CAREFUL NOT TO IRON OVER THE BAG.
Also, I’m a bit doubtful about the paper towel – I think part of the thing about using brown paper is that it has a shiny side and a matt side, and the matt side is absorbent…
I’ve done this with a paper towel covered by aluminum foil, but didn’t know about the paper bag. Good stuff!
Irons and I have a very unhealthy relationship. I have thrown away numerous articles of clothing due repeated burning incidents. But it looks like that paper bag should keep me out of trouble. Great tip!
I used this trick years ago when we moved into our brand new house and I spilled candle wax on the carpet within the first few days D: Works great. Just be veeeeery careful not to iron over the sides of your paper bag!
Why I didn’t think of this when I moved last year?? It’s common sense, but of course because I put it off until the last hour when I had packed and cleaned for days already, I was delusional and had the bright idea instead to give my carpet a little “haircut”. (Ya know, since my barbie’s hair grew back so vigorously after hacking it into what I thought was the latest style. NOT.) Anyways, the bald spots in my carpet were SO less noticeable than the pink wax. 200 dollars off deposit. Funny now, not then.
this post just made me cry. in a good way. it spoke to my heart and soul and connected with the very same thoughts I have almost every day. thank you. <3
Thanks again, Betty!
This works well also on a wood floor, as I just found out 🙂
I have to thank You – just ordered my first oils for skincare, I have used avocado oil and honey for cleaning my face and removing make up and me and my skin loves it (as do I).
Your blog is my favorite at the time, and I shared it with my best girlfriends in Facebook recently. (they have small children, so I found the GAK-recipe amusing ;))
So keep on rockin’ (or should I say crunchyin’)!
Greetings from Finland,(and excuse my English)
Essi-Maria
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I just did the get the candlewax out of carpet with brown paper and an iron. It was so simple and worked great!! I am embarrassed that I waited 3 weeks, but I’m a procrastinator from way back.
Wow, this worked perfectly. I had been putting off dealing with this for several weeks now so Thanks! for at least helping me put a stop to this little nagging chore. I also have a spot where I spilled melted cocoa butter into the carpet. It is currently covered with a kitchen towel so that I can’t see it. Out of sight out of mind right? Except that, you know, there’s this kitchen towel on the floor where it doesn’t belong. I will try this technique and see if it works for cocoa butter as well.
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This works like a perfect charm!!!! It does a wonderful job. First of all I was in a doubt to do so. It’s obvious if you are hanging out with an expensive carpet. The most important part of this technique is to control the temperature while using an iron. Thank you so much for sharing.
This works brilliantly with a paper towel. Also if you use the same method with a damp towel/cloth you can take furniture dents out of the carpet
IT DIDN’T COME ALL THE WAY UP!!!
Repeat…repeat…repeat 🙂 I was discouraged at first but I continued the process several times and played around with the heat on the iron. I think its faster if you pick off the excess wax first. Good luck!
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You just saved me so much money and time!!! We’re about to move out of our place and I was dreading what to do about the wax on the carpet. Thank you for this post! Totally worked!
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I tried your suggestion on removing candle wax from my carpet. I found a large spot unet my chaise and it was candle wax. I used the iron and paper bag but the spot was still there and got larger. It even turned dark brown on my carpet. What can I do now?
This is a great idea. Thanks!
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I’ve done this with a paper towel covered by aluminum foil, but didn’t know about the paper bag. Good stuff!
I’ve done this with a paper towel covered by aluminum foil, but didn’t know about the paper bag. Good stuff!
After trying ALL of these suggestions to get candle wax out of carpet ALL attempts were unsuccessful. I resorted to a can of 409 Carpet foam stain remover and a hard plastic scrub brush. Tada! Like magic. Just make sure that you scrub very aggressively and in all directions. And when I say aggressively I mean more that one stroke across the affected area.
Spilt wax from a warmeer all over my backpack and carpet today. This worked like a miracle!
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Hi – I did the iron/paper towel thing and it worked well, however I have brand new carpet and it seems that the heat melted the black pigment in the carpet and made the spot look more black – now what do I do!?!?!?!
Wow!!! Thank you so much for the comical post but most importantly, informative! Like I fool I accidentally knocked over a candle warming on a hot plate that my wife had put next to me inadvertently… As a good husband my first reaction was to blame her for placing it in a high traffic area but as the saying goes ” happy wife, happy life.” So owned my lapse in judgement and flirted with the idea of replacing the rug because I just knew there couldn’t ever be a way to get that out, after all it is candle wax.. Then low and behold the internet, specifically your post. I’ll admit I was a bit skeptic but what did I have to lose, I was already going to have to replace the rug, right? Well the long and short of it, IT WORKS. I didn’t have the little wax droppings in the picture I literally a small cups worth spewed about. I did scrap the excess on the surface and went through three brown bags from the grocery store and I am thoroughly impressed! I’ve added another tool to the belt and potentially saved a marriage ( or least money leaving my wallet). This is how the internet should be used…
Thanks,