It is widely accepted that not only commercial cleaning agents can remove carpet stains. Many people are turning to natural solutions such as baking soda to remove stains on their carpets.
What is baking soda?
Baking soda is also known as bicarbonate soda. Though it is present as a naturally occurring organic material, you can prepare it at home by dissolving soda ash or sodium carbonate in a solution of carbon dioxide. Baking soda will be the end products of the process.
Advantages
Baking soda has advantages such as it is not toxic, it is cheap and affordable. A tub of baking soda costs a couple of dollars, which is much cheaper than other products. It is also a multi-purpose cleaning solution, which can be used in the kitchen, bathroom, laundry and general cleaning of other areas of the house.
Freshen
If well used, it can clear odours on your carpet thereby freshening and revitalizing it. It has no long-lasting negative effect on the environment. You are at liberty to apply it by using a carpet cleaning machine or just sprinkle on the floor to revitalize the carpet.
Stain cleaning with baking soda
- Cleaning non-greasy stains
Such stains do not have any residue underlying them and to clean them you need to:
Spread enough baking soda over the stain, sprinkle warm water over the stain/baking soda and leave the now dump spot for three hours or even overnight. Then vacuum clean the spot after three hours or in the morning. If the stain does not come off repeat the process.
When cleaning using baking soda, you can mix it with water or vinegar. If, however, you use vinegar, you must soak the stain with vinegar before sprinkling it (vinegar) with the baking soda on top. This is because if you put the vinegar on top of baking soda, they will react rapidly and not remove the stain on your carpet and create a mess.
- Cleaning greasy stains
Such stains are difficult to come off. You will need to remove the greasy stain as much as possible by using a clean rag or paper towel. But watch out lest you spread the grease across the carpet by not rubbing it around.
Cover the stain with a reasonable amount of dry baking soda and leave it overnight to absorb the grease. Then vacuum it in the morning. If the stain is still there, use soap to clean the grease with clean water and a towel. Also, do not spread the stain to other parts of the carpet.
If the stain remains stubborn, repeat the process when the area is a bit dry and allow the baking soda to settle on the stain for three hours before vacuum cleaning it.
After cleaning
You must thoroughly remove the baking soda by vacuum cleaning after cleaning the carpet, especially if you have small children or pets.
Professional cleaner
For stubborn, deeper or large stains, baking soda or readily available cleaning solutions may not work. If confronted by such situation, you may need to hire a professional carpet cleaner from Mvir Cleaning Company.