How to Get Play-Doh Off the Rug

Play-Doh is a substance originally invented in Cincinnati,, Ohio, by a soap manufacture for the Kroeger Supermarket chain. In 1930, when selling off their stock, they noticed that their product, which consisted of Composed of flour, water, salt, boric acid, and mineral oil, could be used as a form of non-toxic modeling clay. The rest is history and children all over the world use Play-Doh to crate all sorts of amazing shapes and artistic creations.

Unfortunately, Play-Doh, like other toy materials, can get stuck to your rug or carpeting, and you have a brightly colored mess on your hands. Fortunately, the solution to get Play-Doh out of a rug or carpet is simple, if you take the right steps. It may seem like the sticky substance is dried onto your rug beyond repair, however, don’t throw out that rug! It’s not ruined! You just need to take the following steps to clean off the Play-Doh embedded in your rug or carpet.

1) Pick up the unattached pieces by hand or by vacuum. Be careful not to go over the same spot over and over, thus grinding more pieces into the rug. Just a quick pass with a regular vacuum or carpet sweeper will do. If it doesn’t come up right away, it means it is stuck to the rug material itself and needs more attention.

2) Take a stiff brush with some mild detergent (not containing bleach) to scrub out the ground-in pieces. Move the brush in a circular and then back and forth motion, picking up the pieces as they come out of hiding, and rinsing the brush often so you don’t redeposit the fragments back onto the rug.

3) For larger pieces that won’t come out, consider using another glop of Play-Doh to pick up the one in your rug. Form the Play-Doh into a ball and then dab the area. If that doesn’t work, flatten out the ball and lie it on top of the piece in your rug. As Play-Doh is held together by basically oil, water, and starch, they will bind to each other like balls of cooking dough. Let dry for a couple of hours, grab the top piece like a handle and pull. Or you could create a play doh handle tool to have at the ready for when this occasion happens again. If you kids love Play-Doh, and you have rugs anywhere in your home—you can bet it will happen again, so you can be prepared.

As having Play-Doh stuck on the rug is common problem—many Youtube videos provide some creative solutions.

This first video gives a quick and easy approach–simply let the Play-Doh dry, brush it with a carpet brush, vacuum and go. This video made the process seem quite simple, but this method may not work if the modeling clay has been drying in a hidden place, like under your child’s bed, for a while. For dried on messes, your job of How To Get Play-Doh off the rug may be more complex, depending on the rug material. Getting out clay from a short pile carpet will be easier than picking it out of a plush shag rug.

For tougher tips on How to Get Play-Doh off the rug, check out this video where a mother and child use a crevice tool and brush in combination to get the job done. This has to be done carefully with an object like a Play-Doh modeling tool, or plastic cake serving spatula, so that you don’t shave off fibers from your rug in the process.

Once the actual product is removed, there’s the job of tackling the stain left behind. Once the Play-Doh is removed, this video recommends drying as much of the stain as possible, by blotting (never rubbing) and then using Isopropyl alcohol on a clean white towel or cotton ball to remove the stain. Use this advice with caution, as alcohol can remove the color from your rug or carpet, along with the Play-Doh Stain.

To stop Play-Doh getting embedded in your rug in the first place, you can always lay down a sheet of butcher or art paper on the floor for the kids to work on. You can also buy shower board at the DIY store, which is like white board material, that they can draw on with dry erase markets and use as a base for Play-Doh craft projects.