Spot-Cleaning Your Carpet with Essential Oils

We are in the process of doing some refreshments in our livingroom, and the last of the jobs includes cleaning our very old berber carpet.  I really wanted to replace it with hardwood or engineered laminate (or whatever it is branded as) but, well, no budget for that yet.

So, we will be cleaning it.  But this time we will clean it with a "non-toxic" shampoo (warning: avoid the 'greenwashing' and make sure the carpet shampoo has the Carpet and Rug Institute Seal of Approval, a sort of umbrella certificate that involves approval as a choice by the EPA, Ecologo or Envirodesic. Many non-toxic shampoos include enzymes to break down the dirt and bacteria.

But in the meantime, one can make up a spot cleaner that should do a pretty good job on removing stains before doing the actual shampoo.

White Vinegar is a gentle cleaner that generally gets most stains.  I use the strong, cleaning variety of white vinegar that you can find in hardware stores (maybe your supermarket).  It has a little more oomph in the form of acid.  You won't want to cook with it.  If you want to purchase it through Amazon, you can find a number of choices HERE  

Salt helps to souse out the dirt.

Essential Oils will provide a scent and some germ-eradicating that helps offset the stale or nasty smells associated with some stains.  CAUTION: Dogs and cats are generally quite reactionary to essential oils and some oils are TOXIC to them.  The original recipe from the site's recipe above, listed Lavender Essential Oil but I found that some other sites list Lavender as toxic to pets.  I suggest that you do your research and perhaps see what scent your dog or cat reacts less to that is NOT on the list to avoid below:




To use the spot cleaner:

1. Thoroughly vacuum the area to be spot-cleaned
2. Combine warm water and vinegar in a large spray bottle
3. Add in salt and essential oils.  Shake well.
4. Spray onto various stains.  Shake between sprays
5. Let dry completely
6. Vacuum
7. Repeat if needed
8. Shampoo

*Recipe found at DIY Natural

*Image from Pixabay