How to Make Homemade Carpet Cleaner

Having several dogs, I am a monthly carpet cleaner and feeling the pinch of today's economy, have had to cut back on some of my name brand, top of the line cleaning supplies. One of the things that had to be eliminated was the wonderful smelling carpet shampoo formula that I had been using. These bottles were running me around ten dollars, but were they really worth it? There was a time that I thought so, but no longer. I have found a couple of different ways to make my own carpet cleaning solution and with wonderful results!

When I need a true cleaning, such as when those muddy paws have run through the house, rather than just a refreshing, here is what I use. I take one teaspoon of my laundry detergent and mix it with one gallon of hot water, mixing thoroughly. It hit me one day as I was doing the laundry that fabric was fabric and this was exactly what my carpet fibers were. The scent is wonderful and the cleaning job that it does is just as good as any that I've done with the big name carpet shampoos. Be sure and do a rinse run over the carpet after you clean it, just as you should with standard shampoos. Otherwise, you will end up with soap left in the carpeting and this will just build up and draw dirt to stick to it.

If I am only in need of a refreshing of the textile and a fresh scent to fill the air once again, rather than a deep cleaning, I go a slightly different route. At these times, I mix approximately a ten to one ratio of hot water and Febreze fabric refresher. These scents are so lovely and when I shampoo with them in the water, they get deep into the fibers and last a fairly long time. This is also nice because then when the scent needs a boost, I can just spritz a bit on the carpet and/or furniture, and they smell the same. Of course, you can also replace the Febreze with your scent of preference.

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