May 6, 2024

How to Clean Up Vomit: Carpet, Car, Furniture, and More

Having a sick family member (or being sick yourself) takes a toll on the entire household. Unfortunately, illnesses don’t always stick to the sniffles and sneezes. When the stomach bug starts going around or someone contracts a bad case of food poisoning, you might find yourself dealing with vomit. Here is a quick and simple guide to cleaning vomit from your carpet, car, or furniture.

Before Cleaning

You’re not looking forward to cleaning up vomit, but it can’t be avoided. Before you get started, prepare yourself, both physically and mentally.

Gather your supplies before you begin. You’re going to need a garbage bag (the bigger, the better), paper towels or napkins, and a microfiber cloth. You will also want a paper plate or some stiff cardboard to help you pick up chunks without touching them. For yourself, grab some gloves, a face mask to cover your nose and mouth, and a body covering like a poncho or coveralls. Finally, you’ll need the ingredients for your cleaning method of choice; we’ve outlined several options below. 

It’s another challenge to get past the mental hurdle of cleaning up vomit. If you can, play some music or put on a TV show to distract you from replaying the “sickness scene” over and over in your mind. Chewing gum or having a mint can help cover the smell while you’re cleaning. You might even think about putting on sunglasses, both to protect your eyes and to mask the colors and textures of the mess.

Cleaning the Carpet

Cleaning vomit from a carpet after a long night out or a bad bout of sickness is never fun, but it can be done effectively. Start by putting on gloves and removing as much vomit as possible from the surface. “Chunks” can be scooped up with a piece of cardboard or a paper plate.

Use something absorbent like cat litter, cornstarch, or baking soda to pull the remaining moisture from the carpet. After the absorbent sits for 20 minutes or longer, vacuum the debris. Use the brush or dusting attachment to get deep into the fibers of the carpet. Finally, apply a carpet stain remover or deodorizer as a follow-up treatment.

You can apply a mixture of equal parts white vinegar and warm water as a deodorizing solution. Mix the two together, along with a little dish soap. Apply the mixture to the stain and blot it. Rinse and repeat as many times as needed until the stain is gone. To get rid of the odor, combine two drops of liquid dish soap, two teaspoons of baking soda, and two cups of hydrogen peroxide. Spray your deodorizer over the area and let it dry.

If you’re looking for a store-bought solution, popular brands include Nature’s Miracle and Simple Solution. Apply the solution according to the manufacturer’s instructions, but be careful not to oversaturate your carpet. Excess moisture could create a breeding ground for mold and mildew.

If you have carpet made of silk or wool, it’s best to bring in a professional to clean your carpet. Either way, once the carpet is clean, try to avoid the area for a couple of hours if possible. There may be traces of infectious microbes (including norovirus) in the air for a while. After a few hours, come back with an EPA-approved disinfectant and follow the label instructions.

At a later date, you might want to come back to the area with a steam cleaner. While this step is not exactly necessary, it can be nice to kill any microscopic traces of the incident.

Cleaning the Car

When carsickness strikes, you want to act as quickly as possible, especially if you’re on a long trip. Getting to the mess quickly will help eliminate the odor fast, whereas letting it linger could make other passengers queasy as well.

In a car with fabric upholstery, you can use nearly the same cleaning process that you would use inside the house. Be sure to remove as much vomit as possible before applying your absorbent. Vacuum the absorbent away if you have a vacuum handy. If you don’t, you can likely pick up the absorbent with your (gloved!) hands, as it tends to harden in chunks once it’s soaked up the liquid.

After vacuuming the absorbent away, you can use a car deodorizer to eliminate the odor. Club soda is a convenient option that’s available at most gas stations. Dab the club soda onto the stain and rinse it by blotting with clean water.

If you have leather seats, get some distilled water and add a few drops of mild dish soap. Saturate a soft cloth in your cleaning solution and gently rub at the stain. Luckily, if you’re on the road, you should be able to find everything you need inside the closest gas station.

Don’t forget to check for stains on the seatbelts, car floor mats, backs of seats, and any other nearby surfaces. Get into small crannies with a damp microfiber duster.

What happens if you can’t clean quickly? What if you can only get rid of the main mess and still have dried vomit to deal with when you get to your destination? First, use a paint or ice scraper or a butter knife to scrape away as much dried mess as you can. Create the vinegar/water solution we mentioned in the last section, and apply it to the stain with a spray bottle.

Cover the area with baking soda or cornstarch and let the solution sit for a couple hours. When you come back, clean your car following the instructions above, depending on whether you have fabric or leather seats.

Cleaning the Furniture

Last but not least, we have upholstery. It’s not uncommon to deal with vomit on your couch or bed in addition to clothes or carpets. If your furniture happens to have a cover on it, see if the cover is machine washable. If so, you can quickly and easily deal with the mess. Washing with hot water will be the most powerful disinfection method. Just be sure to run the self-cleaning setting (or a hot rinse cycle) on your washing machine afterward to get rid of any leftover ick.

To remove vomit from furniture, first scoop up any chunks. Then, apply some warm water to the stain and sprinkle it with a layer of baking soda. Pour white vinegar over the stain and use a scrub brush or an old toothbrush to scrub at the stain. Rinse with clean water and repeat as necessary.

If you don’t have any vinegar on hand, simply use baking soda. Sprinkle it over the entire stain and let it sit for a few hours, then vacuum it away. Afterward, you can spray a little water onto the stain, then add more baking soda and give it another few hours. Vacuum this layer away, and you should be left with a stain-free surface. If not, you may need to contact a professional upholstery cleaner.

When you’re done cleaning, don’t forget to put all of your clothes into a washing cycle with hot water. It may also be a good idea to wipe down any hard surfaces in the immediate area, just in case there’s been any “splatter.”

Working with White Glove Cleaner

Keeping a clean house can seem like a full-time job even when you don’t have special messes to deal with. When you work with a cleaning service like White Glove Cleaner, you can spend less time cleaning and more time exploring New York City with your friends and loved ones.

White Glove Cleaner is proud to offer residential and commercial cleaning services to residents of all five New York City boroughs. We provide one-time services like deep cleaning or move-in/move-out cleaning, as well as recurring services on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. Our team members are each individually vetted and background checked, and if you work with us regularly, you’ll have the same cleaners in your home for every visit.

We bring our own cleaning equipment and solutions to every job, so you don’t have to spend money on specialty products. However, if you’ve already got a preferred cleaning product, we’re happy to oblige. For households with kids, pets, or those with sensitivities, our green cleaning service uses gentle yet effective products. Contact the team at White Glove Cleaner today to learn more about all of our services.