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How To: Clean Up Spilled Wax

11.12.wax_stain.jpgDon'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.

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(thanks, Sisero!)

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Comments (13)

Now you tell me.

posted by RobertTheChicken on 2007-11-12 15:06:44
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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.

posted by nicolemari on 2007-11-12 15:10:35
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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!

posted by denise123 on 2007-11-12 15:18:38
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That is the technique I always use too!!

posted by Nightberry on 2007-11-12 15:38:18
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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....

posted by Clairepetrol on 2007-11-12 16:12:24
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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.

posted by wig3000 on 2007-11-12 16:32:56
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Yes, the wax was having a party! To clarify, it was a wax mess left over from our fun housewarming party. ;-)

posted by wig3000 on 2007-11-12 16:34:32
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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

posted by Anusha73 on 2007-11-12 16:46:49
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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....

posted by ck_1804 on 2007-11-12 20:35:39
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you can also use a blow dryer to heat it up.

posted by dark on 2007-11-12 22:04:28
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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:)

posted by slyvester on 2007-11-13 10:16:21
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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....

posted by lucygirl060107 on 2008-01-25 10:05:38
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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.

posted by Tisha M on 2008-09-18 12:45:18
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