This Green Carpet Cleaning Recipe is for those machines you rent at the grocery store, or the upright you might have at home. It’s not an official recipe from the company but more of a creative application from those of us in the field.
Note the small amounts needed. Very concentrated products. Very Cool. Wonderfully Non-Toxic
I have the sense that I have written about this before but couldn’t find it to repost via my blog. If I am repeating myself just be patient with me. Memory moments are natural and very mother earthy.
With each recipe always comes a little story…
Pregnant with my first child, I asked my husband to rent one of those machines and clean our bedroom carpet. It was the only carpet we had, and I wanted everything spit spot. Nesting mothers in my opinion clean like mad because the truth is once the little ones are around you seemingly can’t ever clean the way you use to!
The cost of the products and the machine seemed to me to be very high. Like $50.00 – this was in the late 80′s so bear with me if I don’t actually recall. We used like 3 bottles of the cleaning stuff. Doesn’t that seem like alot ? This was before my green cleaning days. The smell of these products was just horrific. The residue it left on my carpet was almost grease like. My husband had to clean it water only like three more times to get rid of that grease like feeling. ICK!
I felt like it was a huge waste of time. I admit that I had carpet eebie jeebies in the first place. All that dirt left behind from your shoes, your husband’s shoes and whoever else goes in that room shoes, not to mention the synthetic fibers, or all those dust mites – or whatever else finds it’s way onto carpet.
Give me hard wood floors over carpet anytime
Our first home had wall to wall carpet. I felt like it was never clean enough. You could always see the path of use from the front door to the kitchen. Drove me crazy.
My lovely daughter had a bit of a graffiti problem, she liked to write her name on everything, add smiley faces and especially liked to use the color green. One day she made a HUGE smiley happy face on the carpet.
WHY did you do that????
Because I am soooo happy, mama!!
UGH
I had just started using this green clean non-toxic product line and decided to try this recipe. I was skeptic, the vinegar, baking soda, murphy’s oil soap days had me feel like the only way to clean green was to put forth alot of elbow grease…one had to suffer to be green. When exploring those ” green brands ” available at my local health food store, over and over I found them VERYlow performing and pricey
This better work was all I could say.
Not only did it work in getting the marker out of the carpet. It worked remarkably well on the dirt. It left not one ounce of residue and the defoamer scent was very very light and lovely. I was positively delighted
I have used this recipe repeatedly, even used it on upholstery…can’t say enough good things about it
For a 4 Gallon Machine
Use 1/8 C of Germicide – epa registered – makes 64 Gallons of Germicide
1/8 of C of All Purpose Cleaner
( very concentrated – organic, the gallon size is green seal certified )
In the defoamer section add 1/4 C of Liquid Fabric Softener
For your 1 Gallon machine
2 teas of Germicide
1/2 T of All Purpose Cleaner
In the defoamer section add 1 T of Liquid Fabric Softener
upright carpet cleaning flickr image credit
Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Publisher
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Green Clean
Hi, Karen!Gotta pass this on – your heebie-jeebies about the carpet were *so* not misdirected! I can’t remember what show I was watching, but just heard yesterday that most carpet, when removed, weighs TWICE what it did when installed – because of the crud embedded in the fibers over the years! Ewww!I strongly second the hardwood floors, even though I’ve currently got wall-to-wall carpet (it was here when we bought the place). Happy August!Karen J.
Please do!! Hard wood floors are definitely the way to go.
This is very interesting, I have a rental house that I must clean up, new carpet was put down just about 8 months ago, These people had a dog or two and I wondered if this would take out pet stains and odors. Also, they used the fireplace a lot and there are stains from that. Plus they boots were not removed before entering the house, therefore the dirt and grim from the boots are on the carpet around the seating area. Is there any hope for us, we really can’t afford to put in new carpet.Thanks for your help.
Judy, Certainly couldn’t hurt to try. Good Luck! If I can be a source for products please let me know.
Hi, Glad to stumble your article…Classical girl group eScala, channeled their inner Girls Aloud by wearing colour co-ordinated looks on the red carpet.Salt Lake City Carpet Cleaning
It’s a good article…!
Thank you!
Nice post. I agreed, carpet cleaning is one of the most trickiest thing to take care of. It is always good and recommended to use a carpet cleaning company to take care of my carpet.-Jorn
Thats great, I never knew before this blog.
Great ….You have beautifully presented your thought in this blog post.
Great, thank you for the recipe! I’m glad you didn’t give up on carpet – it has so many benefits. It makes air quality better, insulates against heat loss and noise, makes your floors more comfortable, and if you buy carpet tiles you can just replace that little track from the front door to kitchen. I’ll be using the cleaner recipe!
This is a great recipe for those who have the health of their loved ones in mind. If everybody knew how toxic commercial products are, nobody would buy them anymore! I’m really glad to see that there are ways to protect both the earth and your family from the harm caused by toxic products.
Me too!!
Thanks for this article. It’s so awesome to hear that not only did it work well, but it’s good for the environment too. I think it’s rare to be able to find a solution that does both – in fact, this is one of the first ones I’ve found. Excited to try this “concoction”!
If i can be a source for you for product let me know …