Carpets are often the most traveled piece of furniture in a home, and as such, they can easily become stained. While there are many commercial products available to help remove stains, they can be expensive and contain harsh chemicals. However, there are several homemade solutions that you can use to remove old stains from your carpet quite easily. One of the most effective methods you can use to remove old stains from the carpet is a combination of baking soda and vinegar.
A more natural and affordable solution is to use baking soda as a carpet cleaner. Baking soda helps to refresh both the look and the smell, and it doesn't contain any harmful chemicals, so you can feel good about your own well-being, your carpets, and the environment. In addition, if combined with another natural cleaning agent, vinegar, it can remove even the most difficult stains. Baking soda usually doesn't discolor the carpet, and in fact, it can be used to help remove stains, especially those caused by liquids.
If your carpets have white spots after using baking soda, you may not have vacuumed them completely, and a few more strokes of an empty vacuum will help remove the rest. This can progress much faster if you use vinegar and baking soda together, but applying baking soda only to the stain can be effective. Baking soda is one of the oldest and still effective remedies for removing stains from carpets and upholstery. As it is probably the most traveled piece of carpet in my apartment, I accidentally added to those original dark spots.
Since baking soda is alkaline and the stains are mostly acidic in nature, its alkalinity acts as a buffer to absorb and nullify the staining properties of the acidic substance. In general, using baking soda to clean a carpet is a brilliant, all-natural way to clean your own carpets at home without the need for heavy machinery. Although it is not perfect for old or very resistant grease stains, it is a very versatile product for deodorizing and removing most stains quickly for a fresh finish. A stain remover is also usually used before the hot water removal process to help remove the stubbornness of the stain.
After the cleaning process, which you should do until you see that the stain is starting to disappear, sprinkle baking soda on the scrubbed stain and let it sit on the stain overnight. When you combine the neutralizing properties of baking soda with the anti-stain power of white vinegar, you have a fairly effective organic stain remover. Because it absorbs both grease and odors, it's great for removing these substances from a stain and deodorizing them. You don't have to worry about the carpet changing color or any type of white stain left by baking soda.
Serious stains mean not only those that are difficult to remove, but also those that have seriously damaged the carpet fibers and that are most likely to reappear after normal cleaning. The best part about vinegar and baking soda combined as cleaning agents is the combination's ability to remove old, persistent stains. The post says that you have to spray baking soda on the stain and let it absorb, and then vacuum it, but because my stains were so old, I kept the baking soda in place to increase the potency of the mixture. These solutions aren't possible for cleaning the entire carpet, but there's no denying how effective homemade carpet cleaning solutions can be for stains.
