carpet cleaning tips baking soda

User ReviewedHow to Deodorize Carpet With Baking Soda Two Methods:Treating the Carpet With Baking SodaDealing With Tougher SmellsCommunity Q&A If your carpet has a funny smell due to spilled food, pet odor or years of foot traffic, baking soda might be just the right solution. Using harsh chemicals to remove stains and odors isn't good for the environment and can be irritating to your eyes and respiratory system. Baking soda is cheap, safe for pets and humans and easy to use. Vacuum your carpet first. Once your carpet is as clean as possible, tell your family you'll be cleaning the carpet and ask them not to walk on it while you give it the baking soda treatment. If the carpet is in an area with a lot of foot traffic, you may need to treat it one section at a time. Liberally sprinkle baking soda over the area you want to treat. Plan to use up at least one, and maybe two, boxes of baking soda. You want to completely cover your carpet so you can hardly tell what color it is.

Since baking soda is not harmful to humans or pets, don't skimp. Since baking soda tends to get clumpy, it might be useful to transfer it to a large shaker before applying. This will help you distribute it more evenly. Use fresh baking soda, rather than soda that's been sitting open in your refrigerator. A fresh, unopened box will be able to absorb more smells. Scrub it into the carpet. Use a dry scrub brush or sponge to scrub the baking soda deep into the fibers of the carpet, so it gets all the way to the bottom. This is especially necessary if your carpet is shaggy and long; you want to make sure every part gets coated with soda. If you're worried about ruining the texture of your carpet, use an old sock or t-shirt to rub it into your carpet, rather than scrubbing. At this point, it's best not to walk on the carpet until the job is complete. Let the baking soda sit for several hours or overnight. If you can let it sit for 24 hours, that's even better. The longer it sits, the better your results will be.

You'll need to go over each section of the carpet several times to get the job done.[2] As long as it didn't get wet, the baking soda should come right up. Give your carpet a sniff after the first baking soda treatment.
carpet cleaning coupons pittsburghIs the bad odor neutralized? One treatment will be sufficient to neutralize most bad odors. If the carpet had a particularly strong smell, you might need to give it a second treatment. Remember, the longer you let baking soda sit on the carpet, the better it will neutralize odors. Consider shampooing your carpet before treating it. If your carpet is quite dirty, baking soda alone might not get rid of the smell. You may want to do a deeper cleaning and shampoo your carpet in preparation for a baking soda treatment. This will increase the likelihood that the treatment will work. In place of regular carpet shampoo, try using a mixture of half white vinegar and half water.

If you wash your carpet, wait until it's completely dry before applying baking soda. Consider scenting the baking soda to help mask the smell. For the smelliest of carpets, you may want to add a fresh scent to replace the old smell. To scent your baking soda, pour it into a large bowl. Add five to ten drops of essential oil. Use a whisk to stir the scent in and integrate it into the soda. Spoon the soda into a shaker, then treat your carpet as directed. The following fresh scents will help counteract the smell: NOTE: If you have pets, check to make sure the oil you choose is safe for use around your cat or dog. Repeat the process once every few weeks. If you let your carpet go too long between cleanings, the bad smells will build right back up. Stay on top of your carpet's cleanliness by using a baking soda treatment every few weeks or at least once a month. The baking soda is more likely to completely eliminate odors that haven't been lingering for months or years at a time.

Show more unanswered questions Add a few drops of lemon juice to your baking soda and mix well before using. This will add an additional pleasant scent layer over the scent neutralizing effect of the baking soda.We already know that vinegar is a great weapon for fighting carpet stains, but adding a little baking soda can take it to another level. Household blog One Good Thing by Jillee suggests soaking the stain with vinegar, then sprinkling in a little bit of baking soda. The order is important here; pour vinegar on a pile of baking soda, and you have the makings of a carpet volcano. Once you have a bubbling mound of baking soda on the floor, just wait a few moments for it to absorb the stain, then wipe and vacuum it up. Jillee used this mixture to clean up pet urine, but it should work on a variety of stains, so hit up the source link for some more photos of this hack in action. How to Get Rid of Pet Stains on Carpet | One Good Thing by JilleeMost of us have a tub of it at the back of a kitchen cupboard, but apart from the odd teaspoon used to help a cake rise, bicarbonate of soda is nearly a forgotten ingredient.

Now, a TV thrift expert has put humble bicarb under the spotlight by insisting it can replace nearly all modern household cleaning products.Heather McGregor, known as Mrs Moneypenny, says families can save hundreds of pounds a year by ditching fancy sprays and packets in favour of using bicarb around the house. Families can save hundreds of pounds a year by ditching fancy sprays and packets in favour of using bicarb around the houseIts neutralising properties can eliminate odours in fridges, clothes and carpets, while its granular texture helps with scrubbing. Because it is alkaline, it can dissolve grime, too. In fact, most commercial household products work this way.But is bicarb really all you need for a sparkling home? I teamed up with cleaning expert Aggie MacKenzie to find out how it tackled household nasties, from a greasy oven to grubby carpets. This is how I got on . . . Cleaning an oven door can be an arduous task but bicarbonate of soda cuts through the greaseFew jobs fill me with more dread than cleaning the glass oven door, something I normally do with a spray cleaner.

To put me off further, there are conflicting views on whether the oven should be warm or cold or to use dry bicarbonate of soda or a paste made with water.I decide to attack when the oven is warm, not hot, and to wipe the glass with a damp cloth first. Then I sprinkle dry powder over half the door and use a paste with the consistency of thick icing on the rest. After a couple of hours, the paste turns brown as it absorbs the grease. The dry version is having no discernible effect.When I wipe both sides clean with a cloth, some — but not all — of the dirt has been dislodged, most from the paste side. Dry powder won’t work on its own. Making a paste and leaving it on a warm oven door or oven bottom works, but you need some abrasion, too.The best thing for a glass door is a plastic DIY scraper, the type you use to remove ice on your car windscreen in winter. It doesn’t scratch the glass and is really satisfying! A charm bracelet that has become tarnished can regain its shineI own a silver charm bracelet, that needs a clean.

I make a paste of three parts bicarb to one part warm water (until it resembles fondant icing) and apply to the charms with a cloth. My charms are glistening, but I found the paste messy and fiddly.I think I will stick to a silver cloth in future.I’ve never used bicarbonate of soda directly on silver before. I’ve used a handful of washing soda crystals in a bowl filled with hot water and lined with tin foil.You chuck the silver in the bowl and the dirt comes off really quickly and clings to the foil.That would be quicker than making a paste and having to get into every nook and cranny, possibly missing a few bits. Sprinkle bicarb liberally on a dirty carpet, then let it set overnight or leave for as long as possibleThe instruction is to sprinkle bicarb liberally on the carpet, then let it set overnight or leave for as long as possible. Next, you sweep up as much as you can with a brush, then vacuum up the rest.I sprinkle the bicarb on a beige bedroom carpet that has become dull over time, then vacuum it up after three hours.

This is one of the tests I was most dubious about, but am thrilled to note my carpet looks a lot brighter and smells really fresh. I am sure leaving it on overnight, though a hassle, would yield even better results.And it is has none of the chemical smell that follows a professional clean.This works well on nasty spills: you mop up the worst, then sprinkle what’s left with bicarbonate of soda, leave overnight to neutralise the smell, then sweep up with a dustpan and brush, then vacuum up the residue.It’s much better than using a special product because if you don’t rinse properly after applying those you are left with a residue that attracts more dirt. Bicarbonate of soda leaves a dirty wall looking clean and without removing any paintCan a dab of bicarbonate of soda on a damp cloth really remove my children’s artistic scrawlings from a pure white wall?I seriously doubt it. I usually just slap more emulsion over the top to hide the mess! It comes off instantly, leaving my wall looking clean and without removing any paint.

The only problem is the rest of the wall now looks dirty in comparison!The abrasive quality in the bicarb works well here, but be careful of the finish on your wall. Don’t scrub too hard or you could end up losing a few layers of paint as well. This looked like a chemistry experiment when I saw it on YouTube — all dramatic froth — so I was eager to try unblocking my sink with half a cup of bicarbonate of soda followed by two cups of white wine vinegar.If it didn’t work at least it would entertain the children.The alkaline bicarb reacts with the acidic vinegar, producing a volcano of froth that dislodges any grime blocking the drain. The water level beneath my kitchen sink plughole has definitely gone down, but unfortunately my kitchen smells like a fish and chip shop. Better would be bicarb mixed with washing soda and vinegar, because the soda crystals have even better cleaning properties and help soften the water in hard water areas. Follow this with a kettle of boiling water.Double the amount of washing soda to bicarb because washing soda is a de-greaser.

The glistening result is worth it and with no nasty chemical smell eitherI am told all I need is some bicarb, a clean damp cloth and elbow grease to return my cups to new.Some of my mugs are in such a sorry state it takes a good ten minutes and a lot of energetic scrubbing with a scourer and bicarb to return them to their former glory.But the glistening result is worth it and with no nasty chemical smell either.This works really well because the bicarb crystals are abrasive and much nicer to use than bleach. I think there’s something weird about putting bleach inside a cup from which you’ll be drinking. Anyone with daughters will know how grubby little girls’ brushes and combs can get — especially when they insist on styling their friends’ and dolls’ hair with them.To remove natural oil build-up, I mix a teaspoon of bicarb in a small basin of warm water, soak the brushes until the water cools, then rinse and leave to dry. All the dirt and grit is gone and there is much less rinsing involved than my normal solution of soaking brushes and combs in soapy water.

Anyone with daughters will know how grubby little girls’ brushes and combs can get — especially when they insist on styling their friends’ and dolls’ hair with themThe bicarb gets rid of any traces of oil and that musty smell you sometimes get from combs and brushes because it neutralises the odour. I get through washing-up sponges at a terrific rate. But they can get smelly, so I am keen to see if soaking them in 4tbsp bicarb dissolved in a quart of warm water can freshen them up. My sponges look and smell like new! Absorbing smells is one of bicarb’s best properties. My children's white school polo shirts are the bane of my life and I’ve spent a mint on expensive whitening powders that you add to the powder dispenser.This time I toss them into the washing machine with half a cup of bicarbonate of soda instead and my usual liquid wash in the drum, convinced it won’t make any difference.Much to my surprise, a hot chocolate stain on my youngest son’s polo shirt is almost completely gone.