Effective and nontoxic ways to clean your carpet
Do you know how to clean your carpets without potentially poisoning your kids?
By Aimee Heckel
You wouldn’t sprinkle toxic poison on your children’s beds. Yet many Americans clean our carpets with toxic, potentially harmful chemicals — and then open up our living rooms for kids to play there.
You can still have a clean house, without putting your family at risk. Here are some effective ways to clean your carpet, minus the toxins:
1. Try Simple Green. This is one of the most popular nontoxic carpet-cleaning brands. Use this professional-strength formula to deodorize, deep clean and remove tough spots and stains. It’s also safe to put in carpet-cleaning machines.
It doesn’t use bleach, added color or fragrances, or petroleum distillates.
Find Simple Green on Amazon.com for $18.71 per gallon, or at Home Depot for just $9.97 per gallon. Save even more at Home Depot by using these coupons. Read more articles about saving money at the Home Depot here.
2. Be a savvy shopper. Many products abuse the words “green” or “natural” but are not actually nontoxic. Make sure you select a product that is approved from the Carpet and Rug Institute or the Green Good Housekeeping Seal.
3. Make your own carpet cleaner. SurvivingTheStores.com has a great page about how to make your own effective carpet cleaner — that’s much cheaper than many green products in the stores. It’s a combo of water, hydrogen peroxide, white vinegar, dish soap and an essential oil.
In fact, bookmark this page, which shows you how to clean any surface of your home using only four inexpensive ingredients.
Eliminate odors on your carpet with a sprinkle of baking soda. Leave it overnight and vacuum in the morning.
Use white vinegar to remove pet urine odors.
4. Hire a green professional. Find one that uses plant-based solvents. Ask about nontoxic steam extraction. If you rent a carpet cleaning machine, make sure you rinse it out with water before using it, so you don’t inadvertently bring other people’s chemicals into your home.
With so many options out there, it’s really unnecessary to pollute your home — and when the cheapest stuff is also the safest, why spend more and create unnecessary risk?
Save money on other purchases for your kids with these babies and kids coupons.
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