Candles can make your home smell amazing; however, they don't always work exactly how you want them to. Sometimes, candles melt and drip in strange and unexpected ways. Here is what you need to do when a candle drips wax all over the carpet.

Remove As Much Wax As Possible

If the wax is still soft when you discover it, you are not going to want to try to handle the wax as-is. Soft wax can easily create a larger mess. Instead, take an ice cube and rub it over the wax. This will harden up the wax and prevent it from spreading out any more. 

Once the wax is hard, you want to take a butter knife and gently scrape away at the wax. You are not cutting the wax; it is more like you are shaving the wax off. You should be creating small shavings of wax, like shaved ice, as you scrape away at the wax. You want to try to dislodge the maximum amount of wax possible during this step.

Vacuum Up The Wax Shavings

Next, you need to clean up the wax shavings you created by chipping away at the wax. You can do this by vacuuming up the wax. This will clean up the area and allow you to see what you still have to deal with.

Iron Away Remaining Wax

Now you need to tackle the wax that you were not able to scrap away. You are going to need your iron, as well as a paper bag that does not have words or images on it or a clean white cloth. 

Plug your iron in and put it on the lowest setting possible and turn off the steam; you don't need it for this task. Then, put the paper bag on top of the wax. Take the iron and press just the tip of it into the area where the wax is at. Move the iron around in a circular motion; this will prevent you from accidentally burning your carpet. As you move the iron around the wax affected area, the wax should melt and stick to the paper bag. 

Do not use a paper bag that has words or images on it; those words and images could be transferred onto your carpet via the iron, which would just create another mess for you. Use a paper bag that does not have anything imprinted on it. 

If there is still wax remaining, you may need to repeat this step again using a new rag or paper bag. 

Remove The Candle Dye

Sometimes, even after the wax is gone, the dye that gave your candle its color remains behind. If your carpet has is stained the color of your candle, you are now going to need to remove the dye from your carpet. 

You are going to want to put a few drops of some rubbing alcohol onto the area where the dye is located. Do not saturate the carpet with rubbing alcohol; just a few drops will do the trick. Then, take a clean cloth and blot at the spot; try to use a light colored cloth so you can see if the color is transferring to the cloth. The dye should be transferred to your cloth. Keep blotting until there is no more dye on the carpet. 

Clean The Carpet

Rubbing alcohol has a strong smell, which is why you should rinse your carpet after you use the rubbing alcohol. Take a wet sponge and gentle blot the area, and then use a towel to dry the area. 

Finally, place some rags over the area you were working on and put some heavy books on top. This will allow any remaining moisture to be absorbed. Let the books sit for a couple hours to ensure that all the moisture is gone. 

You may want to vacuum your carpet once more; this will make your carpet fibers soft and normal again. For more help, contact a professional cleaner, like 5 Star Carpet Cleaning.