Removing Wax Stains

Candle wax, or wax from melted crayons on your carpet, floor, or walls can be an annoyance. Here are a few methods to deal with these small stains.

On carpet, start by lifting as much of the solid wax as possible using a kitchen knife. A vacuum might help if there are a lot of small fragments of wax. Try not to let the stain to spread any further, as sometimes the dyes in the wax can be absorbed by your carpet. Once you've removed as much as you can by lifting and scraping, try freezing the stain. Use an ice pack or a small bag of ice, and rest it on the candle or crayon mark until the wax has frozen. Scrape the area with a knife again until you have removed as much wax as possible.

If there is still some wax, try blowing on the stain with a hair dryer set to high. Use one hand to hold the blow dryer, and the other hand to scrape the carpet fibers, removing some of the now soft wax. Blot the waxy area with a paper towel. Try freezing the wax and scraping it up again. You could also try laying a clean, old cloth over the stain, and ironing the cloth. This should melt the candle wax onto the cloth. To remove any remaining wax, blot the entire wax stain with rubbing alcohol (test this first in an inconspicuous area) and let the rubbing alcohol sit for half an hour. Next, scrub the waxy area with a soft bristled scrub brush or an old toothbrush. If there is still an oily stain left behind, try scrubbing the area with baking soda.

Crayon can be removed from walls with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser ®. Just scrub gently at the spot. Sometime regular erasers will work as well. Detergent usually does not work on wax, as detergent is water based and wax is not.

On a wood floor, freeze the candle wax with a bag of ice or an ice pack. Then gently scrape with a kitchen scraper or the edge of a credit card to remove the wax.

For wax stains on clothes, first gently scrape the wax with a small kitchen knife to remove any excess wax. You could freeze the stain as well by using a bag of ice cubes, then scrape away a bit more of the wax. If it is safe to use rubbing alcohol on the garment, rub a bit of rubbing alcohol into the stain and leave it there for half an hour. Gently rub the stain out. If there is still an oily stain, lightly rub a paste of baking soda and water into the mark. Wash as you normally would in your washing machine, but hang the garment to dry—instead of putting it in your dryer—so you can check the stain.

Do not pour hot water onto the stain. Hot water will cause the wax to melt and spread wherever the water spreads.