I would get some carpet precleaner--could also be called pretreater-- and see what that does to all the stains and goo before you clean the carpets.

Some stains simply do not come out. They may have lifted the color from the carpet. However I think the ones you call goo are from food that's been walked on so they should come out

Try Spot Shot Carpet Stain Remover in the aerosol can. It takes out just about everything.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spot Shot

This is a recipe for homemade carpet cleaner. You can put it in a foaming handsoap bottle to pretreat the goo. It does work really well. I did this all over the carpet in my living room. (We are still removing crumbling horsehair plaster so replacing the carpet yet is out of the question.) I just went over the whole carpet with water in a bissell proheat. Any home steamcleaner will work for the rinse. I keeps dirt from sticking to the carpet after cleaning.

1/2 cup of laundry detergent, 1 teaspoon of ammonia, 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and about 4 cups of hot water.
(Don't use he detergent, you won't get the foaming action you need)

I think that recipe will give you a bad detergent build up in the carpet.

sheilajoyce, Not to be rude, but did you not read the part about rinsing with a steam cleaner? I used this as a pretreater on my carpet. It is not a treatment that is needed for normal cleaning, but it works great with a steam cleaner with straight water for a rinse. You can also use some vinegar in the rinse to remove any detergent residue. Believe me, when I moved into my home I thought my carpet was dark brown, it was actually beige. I was horrified. I tried everything to clean it so I could live with it until we are done tearing out all of the old plaster. This recipe worked. In some places I had to rinse twice. My fault I put the cleaner on heavy, because of the stains. And the foaming action of the foaming hand soap dispenser keeps it from being too heavy.

for the discolorations on your carpet try and mix one teaspoon of natural dish soap (Dawn is a good brand to use) with a cup of hydrogen peroxide and pour it over the stained part and leave it to soak for a few minutes. Then rinse any residue with water, blot with a dry cloth or paper towel, and put some salt on the spot (salt helps remove moisture). Allow to dry few hours or all night and then vacuum the spot.

Veronica Bettencourt