Homemade Dry Carpet Cleaner

My Homemade Dry Carpet Cleaner is the original recipe, Most of what you see online are just variations of what I have tested and proven here to work well. This homemade dry carpet cleaner is also a great alternative to store-bought solutions for cleaning your wall-to-wall rug.

There’s nothing much worse than a carpet that does not smell fresh and you can’t just pick it up and shake it off or give a quick wash, you have to create time to properly laundry it and this will require buying a steam cleaner.

A cheaper method which yields the same results though is to sprinkle homemade dry carpet cleaner around your house, which will freshen your carpets making it clean, soft and refreshed.

This homemade dry carpet cleaner is safe for use around your kids and pets. It is made from Eco-friendly ingredients, most of which you may already have in your home.

Homemade Dry Carpet Cleaner (1)

Ingredients:

2 cups baking soda
1/2 cup cornstarch
4 bay leaves
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon Borax (optional)
Blender { Ninja Professional Blender with Single Serve Blending Cups (BL660}
Sprinkle-top container

Directions:

• Measure and add the ingredients to a blender.
• Borax gives the cleaner a bit more oomph, but this carpet cleaner does just fine if you leave it out.
• Baking soda helps freshen and break down dirt build up.
• Bay leaves and cloves scent your rugs while offering antibacterial cleaning power.
• Pulse on low until the carpet cleaner has an even consistency.
• Pour the dry carpet cleaner into a sprinkle-top container, which you can pick up at your local dollar store.
• Sprinkle generously over the carpet, Use a cheap mesh strainer and shake all over the carpet and let sit for at least two hours or overnight.
• Vacuum your carpet, and enjoy. you can confidently remove tough stains with the help of this homemade carpet cleaner.

Homemade Dry Carpet Cleaner (2)

Ingredients:

2 tbsp baking soda (or more, as needed)
1.5 tsp clear dishwashing liquid (I use this)
1.5 tsp white vinegar
1 cup warm water
2 white clothes

Instructions:

• Sprinkle baking soda over the stain and let sit for 10 minutes.
• Vacuum up the baking soda.
• Mix dishwashing liquid and white vinegar into the warm water.
• Dab the solution over the stain with a cloth until the stain is gone.
• Use the second dry cloth to blot the carpet dry.

To someone who asked if this would take out bad smells…..my pet (dog) had been recently peeing on my rug and I tried EVERYTHING to take the smell out. The thing that worked so well was using hydrogen peroxide and baking soda….and I poured it on a rag and left it on the couch overnight.

It took the smell COMPLETELY out. I discovered that mixing peroxide and baking soda makes a sort of oxy solution, which works well for removing stains!

Dry Carpet Cleaner

Ingredients:

1½ quarts of hot (NOT boiling) water
¼ cup of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (it’s the regular hydrogen peroxide that you can get at any store)
1½ Tablespoons of White Vinegar
1½ Tablespoons of Dish Soap (we use Seventh Generation and it works great)
About 5 drops of your favorite essential oil – either just one or a combination. Lemon and lavender are great!
(Optional) If you’re having problems with the solution making too many suds, then you can add a very small amount (1 Tbsp or so) of fabric softener

Directions:

• Mix all of the ingredients together (be sure to add the dish soap to the water and not the water to the dish soap –
• You’ll see why if you do it the wrong way just once)
• Pour into your carpet cleaning machine. follow the exact directions to clean the appliance.

I love that the fragrance is so mild and that I can change it up if I want to! Next time, I want to try vanilla and peppermint.

I love the way this Awesome Cleaner works. And if you add in that teeny bit of Downy fabric softener it will leave your carpets nice and soft too.

Synthetic-Carpet Cleaners

Detergent solution: Mix 1/4 teaspoon of a translucent liquid dishwashing detergent, such as Dawn or Joy into one cup of lukewarm water.

Vinegar solution: Mix one cup of white vinegar with two cups of water.

Solvent solution: Use an oil solvent or substitute nail-polish remover, such as Cut-ex Quick & Gentle non-acetone polish remover.

Dip a white cloth into this solution and apply to the stain. Never pour the solutions directly onto carpeting.

You may have to apply this severally if the stain has been there for a long time but this will work wonderfully to remove common foods and dirt stains from your carpet.

Over time spot cleaning just doesn’t do it. You turn around one day and your carpets are a shade darker than when you had them installed. You do a great job spot cleaning only to reveal how dirty the rest of the carpeting really is. Here’s a way to get them green cleaned.

What You Need:

Ingredients: Salt, borax and white vinegar.

Equipment: A vacuum and a carpet steam cleaner, don’t worry, I explain why we need the heavy equipment below.

Instructions:

Start out with good old spot cleaning then move to the more heavy duty all over work.

1. Vacuum. Vacuum like you’ve never vacuumed before: go in 3 different directions and take your time. Get the dust, hair, and particles out of the pile.

2. Mix 1/4 cup salt, 1/4 cup borax, and 1/4 cup vinegar, then apply this paste to deep stains or heavily soiled sections of carpet. Allow the paste to sit on the carpet for several hours until it dries completely, then vacuum it away.

3. Start up the steam cleaner. Why are we using a steam cleaner you ask? I’ve looked into lots of options from dry chemical cleaning (vetoed because of the chemicals and what is left in the carpet) to steam cleaning and have decided that renting a steam machine is the best option because the chemicals are optional.

4. Skip the carpet shampoo. Hot water can get the most grime out of your carpet alone, just make sure you’re filling your machine with really hot water.

5. If you have especially soiled carpeting you can add 1 cup white vinegar to 2.5 gallons of water for very deep cleaning.

6. Most machines have 2 modes. First, you depress a button and release the hot water and second you release the button and it sucks water back up. Spend 3/4 of your time in the second mode. Soak the carpet then go over it three or four times to dry the carpet as much as possible.

7. Steam clean the carpets a second time. Did you pay for the machine right? you might as well get your money’s worth and do 2 passes.

8. Let the carpets dry completely. It will smell like vinegar pretty strongly while you shampoo the carpet. But after it dries you will be left with a nice clean smelling house.

9. Once they are mostly dry you can bring furniture back in but we usually put aluminum foil under the legs to avoid any stain bleeding onto the wet carpets. Then, let them dry all the way before you walk on them to avoid staining them again.

10. Finally, dispose of the water from the carpet cleaner machine gradually.

I have used this homemade dry carpet cleaner on my carpets, in the interior of my cars and even on couches. It works great and gets out the stains, which makes my family very very happy.

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