How to get Wax off of your Carpet and Walls

I love it when my house smells fresh! Somehow it just makes me happier. So I have always loved candles and fragrance Wax warmers. What I DON’T like is when they get jolted and wax goes everywhere! UUUGGGG! It’s on the wall, it’s on the table and it’s in the carpet! Really??

Well fortunately cleaning up wax is not as hard as you may think. It’s just a matter of warming it up again. Here’s what I do.

Let’s deal with the wall first. How do we get rid of those lovely drips without scraping the paint? Simple. Grab your hair dryer and some paper towels. Bigger chunks will probably be easy to pick off. But for the rest, you need to heat up the wax until it is liquid again and then quickly wipe with the paper towel. The Towel will absorb the wax and leave your wall nice and clean.

Use the same technique with your table. Obviously if your candle was on a counter you can just scrape the wax off.

Now to the Carpet. I suppose you could use your hair dryer as well, but a better way is to use your iron.

Now to the Carpet. I suppose you could use your hair dryer as well, but a better way is to use your iron. Heat your iron to an appropriate setting for the fibers of your carpet.

If you’re in an industrial space, it probably has a lot of polyester or plastic or some such thing in it, and the highest setting is going to melt those fibers! So set it as high as it can go without doing more damage!

Place several paper towels over the offending stain and apply the iron. Let it sit for a few seconds and check out the towel. If you’ve got a bunch of wax marks on the towel already, reposition it. 

When there is a lot of wax showing, change to fresh towels. Repeat this process until no more wax is absorbed. The wax is melting and binds to the paper and the wax will be gone after a few more applications.

Now place fresh towels on the area ‘around’ where the stain was and warm them with the iron as well. You may be surprised to see where else wax landed that you didn’t notice.

Important note: Don’t use the iron this way for more than 30 seconds or you risk burning the carpet. And be sure to use white towels since colored ones can transfer the color onto the carpet when heated up, especially if you have a light-colored carpet.

Important note: Don’t use the iron this way for more than 30 seconds or you risk burning the carpet. And be sure to use white towels since colored ones can transfer the color onto the carpet when heated up, especially if you have a light-colored carpet.

And guess what???  This works on upholstery and clothing too!

Whether from burning candles or making lip balm, getting wax on the rug is a major bummer. Don’t waste your time scraping, soaking, or even cutting out the offending wax stain. My way is much faster, simpler, and a gentler way to treat your wax-soaked fibers.