Last month, my neighbor’s dog tracked dirt all over her living room carpet and asked me what she should spray on it. She was half panicked. No, I didn’t have a magic formula. I told her that I have some in my kitchen cabinet – vinegar, dish soap, and baking soda – and that’s it, the secret to a great DIY carpet cleaning solution. Once you know it, kind of a letdown.The price of a store bought carpet cleaner is $15 to $25 per bottle, and the majority of what you are paying for is water. You can make your own for about 50 cents and the ingredients are likely in your own kitchen. Why Make Your Own Homemade Carpet Cleaner Money’s the obvious pitch. A gallon of white vinegar will cost less than three or four name brand carpet shampoos and lasts longer. But that’s not really the reason I am still doing it. I like knowing exactly what’s touching my floor that stopped feeling optional once I had a dog who naps face down in the rug and a toddler who treats the carpet like a snack tray. People also cleaned floors with vinegar and dish soap for decades before anyone slapped a brand name on a spray bottle, so “it works” isn’t really up for debate. (If pet messes are a regular thing at your place, our pet stain and odor removal guide goes deeper than what’s covered here.) However, it’s not a wonder cleaner either. While a natural carpet cleaner works as such, you shouldn’t expect it to act like a spray used in a hospital – because it doesn’t kill bacteria. What it can do? Clean out the stains, reduce odor and clean your carpet in-between the thorough cleanings. The Basic Vinegar Carpet Cleaner Recipe It is the combination that I use on a regular basis. You’ll need: Apply it thinly to the spot. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes and then blot it up using a dry towel. Scrubbing is not recommended. I know well enough that when a spot cannot be removed, one can easily scrub it in hopes of making it disappear. A Stronger DIY Carpet Stain Remover for Tough Spots Red wine. Old pet accidents. Coffee that sat out for two days because nobody noticed it was there. The basic recipe just shrugs at stains like that.It removes color right out of the fiber instead of removing dirt from the surface. Test it on an inconspicuous spot first, because on a dark carpet, it may produce lighter spots, which can’t be reversed. One trick I actually like: use this as a baking soda carpet cleaner trick—sprinkle baking soda right onto the fresh stain before you spray and then hit it with the solution on top. It bubbles up almost immediately. Kids think it’s magic. It’s also doing real work loosening the stain while it fizzes. Turning It Into a Carpet Cleaning Machine Solution Buy or rent a machine? In case you wish, just double up on the white vinegar, liquid dish soap, and essential oils to 1/4 cup, 1 tablespoon, and a few drops respectively per gallon of hot water. Just fill up the tank just like one from a store. Go slow. Push forward to lay the solution down, pull back to suck up the dirty water, and repeat each patch of carpet until what’s coming back up runs clear. Then do one more pass with plain water only. Skip that last step, and you’ll leave soap behind in the fibers—which, annoyingly, attracts more dirt than if you’d never cleaned at all. Mistakes That Ruin Your Results Using too much solution is the big one. More soap doesn’t mean a cleaner carpet; it means more residue sitting in the fibers, and that residue turns into a dirt magnet within a few weeks. The next best thing would be soaking the carpet rather than spraying it. Not only does it wash off but it goes into the pad below and remains there; that’s how one ends up having an odor which is definitely worse than the stain that was being addressed. (CleanPlate Guide has more drying-time tips for carpets if you’re tackling a whole room at once.) And test a hidden spot first, every time. Wool and some dyed rugs don’t handle vinegar the way synthetic carpet does. Ten minutes of testing beats explaining a bleached patch to your landlord. Ingredients You Should Never Mix This section is non-negotiable; never mix bleach with vinegar.Bleach should be kept in its own bottle, in its own cabinet, and possibly on another day for cleaning if you need to. The same goes for bleach and ammonia. Just close the browser window if someone online says something about combining cleaning products for additional power. All the stuff I mentioned here – vinegar, dish soap, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide – does not go anywhere near bleach. When to Call a Professional Homemade solution handles everyday spills fine. But if your carpet hasn’t had a real deep clean in over a year, or pet odor has worked its way into the padding, spray-and-blot isn’t reaching that anymore. A professional machine pulls out far more water and dirt than a rental unit does, and it won’t leave your floor damp for two days after. You don’t have to pick one or the other. Use the homemade spray for regular touch-ups and bring in a pro once a year for whatever’s built up underneath. The Bottom Line Most of the common carpet problems can be cleared up with vinegar, dish soap and baking soda, at a fraction of the price of store-bought carpet cleaner. That’s really all that a home-made carpet cleaner has. Make it simple, test before spraying, and don’t let bleach come into contact with vinegar. For more room-by-room cleaning recipes, check out the rest of the CleanPlate Guide. FAQ May I use a DIY carpet cleaning solution with a Bissell or Rug Doctor? Most people
Non-Toxic Cleaning Products That Actually Work (We Tested Them)
Open the cabinet under your sink.Odds are decent. One of those bottles has a warning label “harmful if swallowed,” “avoid contact with skin,” something in that family. That’s usually when people start eyeing the non-toxic stuff instead. Not because it’s trendy. Because nobody wants to hold their breath while scrubbing a tub. We got there the hard way, if I’m honest. One of us cleaned the bathroom, sat down for dinner, and still had a scratchy throat two hours later. That was it. Last straw. So we spent a few months running a pile of non-toxic cleaning products through our own kitchen and bathroom. A few earned a permanent spot under the sink. Most got tossed after one use. What’s below is just what survived nothing lifted from a press release. What “non-toxic” actually means The not so good news: “non-toxic” is not a term of law. It can be printed on a bottle by any company and no one checks.That’s how some cleaner with a leaf on the label ends up listing the same harsh stuff as the yellow bottle sitting next to it. A true non-toxic cleaning product doesn’t contain ammonia, chlorine bleach, phthalates or synthetic fragrance and uses common words to identify ingredients on the label or on the website. If a company is not willing to tell you what is in there, then that’s your answer. The benefits of a change of language. Why it’s worth switching Your kitchen counter doesn’t need something strong enough to strip a garage floor. The EPA has found indoor air often carries more pollution than the air outside, and cleaning sprays are a big part of why every time you spray a harsh cleaner, some of it hangs in the air of a closed room, and you breathe it in. Kids and pets feel this more than we do. They’re at a lower level and their hands go in their mouth more than ours do. The mopped floor is not a safe place for a toddler to crawl across, as it is for the adult holding the mop. Cleaning your home with green products doesn’t mean you have to make the rooms dirtier. It simply means that the breathing air is not a hazard after breathing.We noticed the difference most in small rooms with no window, a half bath, say. A strong cleaner in a room like that lingers for an hour. Vinegar clears out in a few minutes. The non-toxic cleaning products we’d actually buy again We didn’t rank these by price or packaging. We ranked them by one question: Did it clean the mess? Seventh Generation Lemon All-Purpose The cleaner handled everyday counter grime without leaving a film. Get the unscented version if anyone in your house gets headaches from strong smells it’s fragrance-free. Branch Basics Concentrate surprised us.One bottle can become an all-purpose spray, bathroom cleaner and laundry booster, so you’re not carrying five bottles for five chores! It is more expensive at the cashier but goes a long way. Puracy Multi-Surface Cleaner did the job of removing dried spaghetti sauce off a stovetop with a minimum of scrubbing. Great choice for those who don’t want to work up a sweat while cleaning up. The old school choice is Bon Ami Powder Cleanser which is still effective for cleaning sinks and tubs. No dye, no fragrance, and it’s been around since 1886 the formula’s had time to prove itself. It’s also one of the cheapest natural cleaning products here, by a wide margin. Common Good All-Purpose Spray is the one to grab if plastic waste bothers you as much as the chemicals do. It is packaged in glass and low-plastic pouches for refills are to be mixed with water by the user. It performed as good as Seventh Generation, but in the end, it was the packaging. For a quick list, here are these 5 to cover the kitchen, bathroom and laundry. How to make your own non-toxic all-purpose cleaner If you feel that buying an entire bottle of something seems excessive, try concocting a basic recipe for a homemade all-purpose cleaner using things you already have around the house – one cup of water, one cup of white vinegar, and ten drops of lemon or tea tree essential oil in a spray bottle. This solution works great for counter tops, sinks, and most sealed surfaces except for granite and marble the acid in this cleaner erodes the sealant over time. This is basically the same as Bon Ami just without the label. Labels to trust and labels to skip “Natural,” “green,” “eco” none of those words mean anything, legally. A bottle can slap all three on the front and still be full of the same stuff as whatever’s already under your sink. Look for EPA Safer Choice or USDA Certified Biobased instead, or just check if the company bothers to list every ingredient on the label or their website. The Environmental Working Group has a database where you can search a product by name and see how it actually rates worth thirty seconds before you buy something new. A simple non-toxic cleaning checklist You don’t need to replace everything in your cabinet this weekend. Start with what you touch most: Use up what’s left of your old cleaners on outdoor jobs the garage floor, trash cans instead of pouring them down the drain. For a full room-by-room routine, check out our non-toxic cleaning products for the home checklist. Same deal: tested in an actual house, not a lab. The bottom line You don’t need twelve bottles under your sink. A solid all-purpose cleaner, a scouring powder, and a bottle of vinegar handle most of what a house throws at you. Start with one swap this week, whatever’s closest to running out and build from there. Want the full breakdown of everything we tested and sent back? Our guide to the best non-toxic cleaning products has the complete list, updated as we test new brands.