A Few Old Fashioned Carpet Cleaning Tips

While having your carpets professionally cleaned is always the best option, there are a number of old fashioned methods of taking care of small carpet stain issues that were around long before there was “professional carpet cleaning!” Have a “smelly” carpet? Wet dogs running through your home, smoke, and even cooking smells can linger longer than you’d like. For this, try mixing together 2 cups of cornmeal with 1 cup of borax, sprinkle it over your carpet, wait an hour, and then vacuum it up! Have a food or wine stain? Try your husband’s can of shaving cream. Take a small brush and work the shaving cream into the stain thoroughly, then use a clean, damp colorfast cloth to wipe up the shaving cream – and the stain! What about – the worst – grease? Would you believe flour will take it out? That’s right, sprinkle finely sifted flour on the stain, lay a piece of brown paper from a lunch or shopping bag over it, and then stack phone books, bricks – whatever weighty object you can find on top of the flour and bag. Wait a half hour or so, take of the weights and bag, and sweep the flour out with a whiskbroom. Repeat this as often as necessary to soak up all of the grease, using fresh flour and paper each time. Anything larger than these issues – don’t fool with it yourself, call in the pros!