It’s so easy to overlook cleaning your carpets. Vacuuming feels like enough most of the time, right? But they really do need a good cleaning regularly to keep them nice and fresh and make sure there isn’t anything unpleasant lurking in there. After all, carpets are great places for mold and pests to hide. And those are two things I really try to avoid in my home. So this super easy two-ingredient carpet cleaner takes 5 minutes to make and costs less than fifty cents!

Did I mention it is also all natural and green? You can avoid all the synthetic chemicals in store bought carpet cleaners. I generally believe simple is better, and this cleaner definitely lives up to that principle. That’s why I love green cleaning so much!

This carpet cleaner is great to use for regular cleaning and deodorizing, but it isn’t a spot stain remover. It will prevent and treat icky odors and mold from permeating your carpet, so it definitely has its purpose and is extremely useful. If you do want a spot stain remover, head on over and read this post about removing carpet stains.

This recipe has only two super simple AND effective ingredients:

• Baking soda: gets rid of funky and unpleasant smells, gentle, non-toxic, and natural.
• Borax: kills and prevents mold and pests, disinfectant

And it couldn’t be easier to make.

*As with any new cleaning product, it’s always good to spot test the cleaner before you do this to make sure it doesn’t affect the fabric.

I got this adorable carpet at home goods, and I use it in my office. It gets a lot of trampling day to day, especially from my dog Biscuit. So after almost 3 months of use, I figured it was about time for a good cleaning. I sprinkled the carpet cleaner all over and it worked like a charm!

All right- this is the before photo.. just a little bit of yellowing and unfreshness, but not tons.

Before

And this is the after picture! I will admit I left the homemade carpet cleaner on overnight because I can be a bit lazy… but it worked its charm. I used it on only half the carpet and did a smell test… and it definitely helped remove some of the smell!

After

I told you it was easy!

My carpet feels much fresher now. Yay for homemade cleaners!

Let me know how making your own homemade carpet cleaner goes for you.

supplies used in this post

The post Homemade Carpet Cleaner and Deodorizer appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.

Ever get a smell in your house that you just aren’t sure where it is coming from? If you’re like me, with a sensitive nose, then smells make you get on a cleaning rampage trying to clean any possible source. Well, sometimes you just can’t find it, or you don’t have time to clean like a maniac. So in those cases, you need a little something to deal with the smell.

The standard “air freshener spray” that everyone I know uses is febreeze. I did use febreeze a lot in my college dorm days. It can be helpful for getting rid of odors. Unfortunately, it comes with a big downside. Toxicity.

Let’s just start out by mentioning that it has artificial fragrances, meaning that it could contain any number of chemicals that don’t need to be disclosed, but it also has plenty of other non-natural nasties. It has propellants, hydrogenated oils, and lots of other unpronounceable words including Polyacrylate and Cyclodextrin. Febreeze can cause any number of problems ranging from skin irritation to nervous system effects. Better to just avoid it.

It’s even easier to whip up this air freshener than to make a trip to the store. So there’s really no downside to making it yourself. And it only costs $1.92 to make one batch.

(If you want to check out how a product is for your health and the environment, I recommend the Environmental Working Group’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning)

All the ingredients contribute to the deodorizing power:

• Witch hazel: Sanitizes, natural solvent, gentler than other alcohol based cleaners, evaporates easily
• Baking soda: Neutralizes odors/ deodorizes
• Antibacterial essential oils: Essential oils can be great for killing bacteria that cause odors. In my mix I used lavender, lemon, lemongrass, and cinnamon bark oils because they are all antibacterial and they smell nice. Other great anti-bacterial oils include tea tree, geranium, oregano, eucalyptus, and thyme, among others.

And it really couldn’t be any easier to make

This stuff is pretty great. No guilt and just lovely smells. The cinnamon is the strongest scent of the oils I used, and so it always smells heavenly cinnamon fresh when I spray it. It’s nice to have around, especially with our hedgehog Falafel. I can imagine with kids there are just some smells that you need a quick fix for.

All the ingredients are beneficial, non-toxic, and easy to find. You can get witch hazel at any drug store and essential oils from health food stores. If you want a high quality witch hazel (which makes a difference) you are probably better off getting it from a health food store, or from a reliable seller online.

So spray- and enjoy the fresh smells, with no fear of damaging your health or the environment.

The post Homemade Febreeze: Removes Odor and Sanitizes appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.