Don't Cry Over Spilt Wine: PART TWO (in which I become zen master of cleaning.)

I realized, this is the time in our lives when we learn how to treat red wine stains. There is no time in lives like the present, when we have parties with high occurance of over-service, when we are drinking wine instead of mixed drinks, when we are careless and accident prone with our wine, which is why, when I shared with the girls in my cab, that I spilled an entire glass of red wine on my carpet and bedding, they each had a[n amazingly accurate] remedy.

Here follows, my successful recipe for removing the set red wine stain from my light blue carpet:

Immediately at spill: blotted stain and dumped as much salt as I had on hand on it. (This sucks up the wine, pulling it out of the carpet.) Left it for two days (not the best idea, I readily admit, but did not have time (what?!!) before now to deal).

Tonight:
-cleaned up the salt, scraped it up and tossed it.
-Vaccummed everything else up, super well.
-Consulted How To Clean Practically Anything (4th ed./updated, Comsumer Reports Books, Kippel; Appendix B, pg 198.)
-found an old opened bottle of white wine in the back of the fridge, and grabbed a clean white rag towel.
-turned on some MGMT.
-poured the white wine onto the red wine stain, and blotted, pushed around the pile to agitate only a little and soak up as much as possible. repeated (maybe even two or three times).
-back to the kitchen, I made a solution of Detergent*, put a kettle of water on to boil, and turned an old white skirt into a new clean white rag.
-I poured the soap-water onto the stain, let it sit for a sec and then began firmly but with not much action to agitate the pile, and almost scrub, alternating with soaking up the stain and soap-water. Again, repeated, maybe even twice.
-poured hot water onto the stain to "rinse" out the detergent and abolish any remaining stain and blotted like crazy with a pair of old white and blue seer-sucker pants I'll not wear again turned blotting rag. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

It still needs to fully dry out, but looks awesome. (I definitely worry I didn't get enough detergent out and it's going to soil again quickly... we'll find out!)

-poured myself a tall glass of red wine to celebrate.

If only the girl in Can't Buy Me Love had my cleaning abilities, she'd never have fallen in love, but our hero could have had a new $1000 telescope.

*Detergent (From HTCPA's Spot Removal Kit, Appendix B, pg 182) (mild) Mix one teaspoon of a clear (not colored) hand dishwashing liquid per one cup of lukewarm water. Hand dishwashing liquid residues can cause rapid resoiling, so rinse thoroughly after using. Never use laundry detergents on upholstery or carpets because they contain optical brighteners that may discolor the fibers or afffect light and white colors.