Sunday, April 1, 2012

Carpet Cleaning

My husband and I cleaned our carpets last weekend.  It worked out perfectly that the girls had other activities leaving my husband and me at home with no other plans.  Friday night we took a quick drive to my parents' place to pick up my mom's carpet cleaner and vacuum.  (Remember that I mentioned I am in the market for a vacuum?  That's because, right now, I don't have one.) 

When we got home, I vacuumed like an insane person. 

I also spot cleaned some nasty stains with a solution of 2 tablespoons oxygen bleach to 2 cups of HOT water.  I scrubbed the spots with a scrub brush and rubbed with a white terrycloth towel.  This was really effective.  Trust me--you don't want to see what that towel looked like!  

We got up on Saturday morning and moved all the furniture off of the carpet.  We then laughed at the perfect rectangle of filthy carpet in the footpaths around the furniture.  Then, I vacuumed again--seriously, it has been a while since I could properly vacuum my floors!  That's when we got to the fun part. 

One cup of oxygen bleach went into a small bucket with about two cups of water.   I stirred with a long-handled wooden spoon to get the bleach to completely dissolve.  Then, I poured the mixture into the soap tank of the cleaner with more HOT water. And I cleaned.  And cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned the carpets. 

Look what came out of the carpets!


There is a very common mistake made amongst the average home carpet cleaners that is so easy to avoid!  Don't leave the soap on your floor!  When I finished cleaning with the soapy solution, I rinsed with clear, hot water.  I wanted to see what was coming out of my floor so I rinsed out the tank before rinsing the carpets.  I got lots more nasty water.  (Sorry that I didn't get a picture, I was kinda grossed out.) 

I did the footpaths a second time because I felt we could get a better result. 


We did, but only slightly.  (We have GOT to change the carpets!  But a baby comes first.)

Fans blew onto the carpets all afternoon and night to dry the carpet so we could put our furniture back.

On Sunday morning I got up a little early and vacuumed again.  My carpets feel so soft and look so good! 

So, what's the moral of this story?  Well, quite simply, don't spend a fortune on specialty cleaners.  Just oxygen bleach, well dissolved in hot water.  Secondly, don't forget to rinse.  The soapy residue will make your freshly shampooed carpets look dingy and dirty.

2 comments:

  1. I have never heard of oxygen bleach, is that like oxyclean? I have heard you can make your own oxyclean. I was also wondering about laundry soap, I make my own and my friend said it doesn't work in her laundry because of the well water. Any suggestions? I use borax, washing soda and zote soap.

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  2. Oxygen bleach is essentially Oxyclean, but I usually just buy the Target store brand, which is identical.

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