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Keeping the carpets clean and stain free can be a challenge, especially with little kids and pets.  Over the years I have used many commercial carpet cleaners and haven’t been happy with the results as I found instead of cleaning the spot it spreads the stain. I now use a homemade Carpet Cleaner which works an absolute treat and is very budget friendly!

Our cat Millee is a ragdoll with a gorgeous semi-long coat, at various times throughout the year she get’s an upset tummy from the fur she has swallowed resulting in dirty accidents on the carpet, not a nice surprise and be warned TMI, comes out both ends, poor girl, which leaves quite a mess on the carpet.

I’ve tried commercial carpet cleaning products before, some have been good, but I have found others can leave a dull watermark on the carpet.  At our old place I could always tell where I had cleaned the carpet. We got brand new carpets laid before we moved into our new house so you can imagine I’m trying my hardest to keep them clean and thankfully I have found a solution and this was only by chance! I’ve used my new homemade Carpet Cleaner recipe several times now and it works every time.

YOU WILL NEED

• Paper Towel
• 1 part water to 1 part vinegar, in a spray bottle
• Bicarb soda

I put my bicarb soda in a powdered sugar shaker purchased from spotlight (quite a few years ago) but most kitchen stores will stock these.

STEP 1

I mentioned I came across this solution by chance as Millee had coughed up behind the couch, which I hadn’t noticed until it had dried up and I didn’t have a product on hand to use. At first I was pretty mad my carpet was dirty (I know she can’t help it) thinking it would be harder to clean being it’s dried up, but as a result I found it was easier.

• Using a paper towel pick up as much solid from the mess as you can.
• Vacuum up remaining mess.
• Remove the attachment from  your vacuum and use the nozzle to go over the area, left to right, back and forwards, several times to pick up all the dried on particles stuck between the carpet pile.

This is really effective, if it was a wet stain it would more than likely smudge into the carpet more, making it harder to clean.

STEP 2

To help remove the odour sprinkle the area with bicarb soda then spray with vinegar. Do not drown the carpet in vinegar. You will see the bicarb and vinegar react together, this is when you have sprayed enough vinegar (I give my nozzle about 4 squeezes).

Leave to sit for 30 minutes to a couple of hours, it’s up to you.  I usually walk away and forget about it for awhile, this leave time for the bicarb and vinegar solution to do its thing.

It may be hard to see in the image below, but this solution brings the colour to the surface, making it easy to vacuum away.

STEP 3

Vacuum up the powder from the carpet. You may be lucky enough not to require any more cleaning, that’s it!  But if you can still see a hint of stain left spray again with vinegar/water and dab a paper towel over the surface to absorb the vinegar, continue to do this until the stain has vanished.

DO NOT RUB the area, dab/blot only.  Rubbing will damage the carpet pile and can spread the stain further.

There you go, my effective Homemade Carpet Cleaner for Pet Stains, let me know if you try it and if it works too!

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