New carpet or any other type of flooring just isn’t in my budget right now, less than a month from Christmas. Yet, with four kids and a puppy, the carpeting seemed to be on its last breath and in major need of resuscitation as I was getting ready for last minute Thanksgiving guests.
Well, what it really needed -which I give it often- was a good cleaning. Once I did the overall area cleaning it was time to get down to spot cleaning. Some of the spots I had just about given up on but I hate stains, so I decided to keep going. I pulled out various cleaning products and even bought a couple of the new ones with oxygen or this or that, all of which promised to rid the carpet of even tough, set in stains. Yeah, right.
I scrubbed and scrubbed some more. One product actually seemed to make stains or at least made existing ones more pronounced. Tired, stressed, and nearly in tears, I reached for the liquid laundry detergent.
It is an inexpensive brand, Sun, with color safe bleach alternative. I tried it in a corner to make sure it wouldn’t discolor (like that other cleaner did!) and waited a while. There was no discoloration, so I slipped my rubber gloves back on, mixed a little laundry detergent with warm water and began working on stains.
It worked! Soon, the carpet was looking much better and I was feeling better. The best part is it’s something I always have on hand, and it’s cheap (and also makes a good pre-treater for clothes). A 100 oz. jug of laundry detergent costs less than a small bottle of carpet stain remover and I only needed a few drops.
Next time juice (or something worse) hits the carpet, don’t cry, give your favorite laundry soap a try.
Who Needs Fancy Cleaning Products?