How To Clean Your Carpet Naturally? (5 Easy Steps)

Carpets have lots of advantages as flooring materials, but most carpet experts disagree. Why? Because carpet is the only carpeting material that can harbor all sorts of bacteria and germs that other flooring materials like hardwood floors and ceramics won’t. Despite these flaws, stepping onto a warm, fuzzy carpet feels good than a chilly hardwood floor especially in the morning when the humidity is high here in Singapore.

Carpet is not a bad flooring material, how you maintain it is what will determine whether it will harbor germs and bacteria or not. Luckily, there is a way you can be able to make your carpet free of as you maintain its original look with few common household products. You can decide to use the commercial carpet cleaning solution, and they effectively remove stains, but some of them have strong odors that may not be suitable for your pet or your kids. 

You do not have to spend money every time you have a regular vacuuming schedule. Make your own homemade cleaners solutions. For aggressive carpet cleaning please engage a professional home carpet cleaning service. 

Here is how to clean your carpet naturally using common homemade products.

1. Vacuum first, always!
The best thing anyone can do to their carpet does a regular cleaning by vacuuming. Even before you call a professional cleaner it is important to vacuum first to make sure that the cleaning expert concentrates on cleaning the deeper entrenched dirt.

Experts recommend that you do a weekly cleaning schedule so that you can be able to keep dirt at a minimum and most importantly, prevent dirt from working its way down to the inner part of the carpet where it would be very hard to get them out. When vacuuming, ensure that you move the furniture so that it would be easy to reach the hard-to-reach spots. 

2. Prepare natural carpet fresheners
Natural carpet fresheners can prolong the freshness of your carpet and making some is very easy. All you need is an essential oil and baking soda.

Follow this guideline;

• For one cup of baking soda, add approximately ten drops of essential oils.
• If you own a pet, add a cup of borax so that you can be able to keep fleas at bay.
• Lightly rub the above mixture paste into your carpet and especially over the stain and let sit for at least an hour. I would suggest that you use a glove when applying to avoid touching the poop if that’s the stain you are eliminating. 
• Vacuum the dried paste or mixture. The baking soda can pick up moisture, so make sure to do this on a dry day. Vacuuming at this time should remove odor, stains, and all the dirt that normal vacuuming usually misses.
• Also, be sure to keep the children and the pets off the carpet when the mixture is not dry. 

3. Pre–treat remaining stains. 
Pre-treat any remaining stain with an equal mixture of vinegar and water as that of baking soda and essential oil. If the stains are tough to remove, (this usually happens on light-colored carpets), try a mixture of salt and lemon juice. It is advisable that you do a test with a mild cleaning solution at the tip of the carpet before trying the more ‘harsh’ homemade cleaners on the entire carpet. 

You can scrub the stain with the staining mixture on an old towel and dap as much moisture as you can. You can place the towel on top of the stain spot and use an iron on the ‘steam setting for about 30 seconds.
You might find yourself repeating this process depending on how long the stain has stuck or how stubborn it is, but with persistence, you can get an impressive transformation to your carpet. 

4. Bust out the steam cleaner.
It is advisable that you use very hot water to remove stains or dirt. You may need to fill the soap reservoir with the cleaning solution the natural solution (if you do not want to use hot water), but water will remove much of the accumulated grime. The natural solution here should be water and vinegar mixed in equal proportions.

For high-traffic areas, you might need to use a high ratio of water and vinegar. 1 cup of white vinegar to 2.5 gallons of water is recommended for deep cleaning. If you think your carpet is going to have a bad odor mostly like salad dressing, you can add you’re essential oils.

If you check your cleaning machine, it has two modes. When you depress a button, you release hot water, when you release it you suck the water back. Concentrate on the second mode more, at least of your time. Soak the carpet as many times as you can; three or four times.  Note: It is advisable to clean the entire carpet following the cleaner manufacturer’s instructions.

5. Let the carpet dry completely
It is imperative to let the carpet dry completely. As noted above, to steam clean your carpet, It is important to choose a warm, dry day with low humidity. Opening the windows to allow sufficient airflow helps the carpet to dry very quickly. 
Once the carpet is dry, you can bring the furniture back to its position, and it is advisable that you put aluminum foil under the legs of the furniture to avoid bleeding onto the carpet. At this particular time, try to keep off pets or children walking on the carpet to avoid staining the carpet again. 

Key points to remember.
• Do not forget to dispose of the water responsibly.
• Test any natural cleaning product on a small area, especially at the corner of the carpet. 
• Use essential oil if you get a salad dressing smell but the smell should go within a day or two.
• Let the carpet dry, you have to keep off children and pets from the carpet until it is completely dry. 
• Do not make the carpet too wet always. Remember the machine mode. Concentrate on the drying mode than the depressing mode. 

We all know that for each and every toxic cleaner we use, there is a heavy on the environment. When we use toxic cleaning products, we risk the health of our loved ones and even our kids. Some of the cleaning products we get are harmful to human beings, so please check the label on these products or use the guideline above to be on the safer side.