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SarahA
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| Posted: May 01 2009 at 7:09pm | IP Logged
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Does anyone know of a safe, non-toxic way to spot-clean/deep clean carpets? One website I found mentioned Biokleen (I think that's how they spelled it), but just in passing. Are there any home-made mixtures that would work? I spot cleaned once with a store-bought brand, and after smelling it then, I'm glad my littlest one wasn't crawling yet! Now he is, though, and I don't want him exposed to that.
I'm mostly interested in spot-cleaning tips, but also how you clean the whole thing. Steam? The last few houses had hard floors all over the living areas so we didn't have an issue with it, but with having carpet in our living room here, and all the bedrooms, it's something I have to keep in mind.
We're gradually "going green" and we love it, but this is one product I don't want to use up (in an effort not to waste, we're using most things before buying new earth/people friendly products.) I don't even want to throw it away because it can't be good for the landfill.
I know there are lots of ladies on here who are very eco-friendly, so just thought I'd seek good advice from the best sources...
Thanks!
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Sarah
Army wife, Mama to (so far...) 2 boys, 1 girl, then 2 more boys
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: May 01 2009 at 9:26pm | IP Logged
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I'm looking for this one too....
What we use for day to day and spots is baking soda - either in a paste form for spots or sprinkled all over (have the children walk all over it to really get into the carpet!), leave sit overnight and vacuum really really well first thing in the morning. This seems to be getting rid of old chemicals.
And what about all the chemicals they use to put the carpets down? I'm THISCLOSE to moving to an apartment without any carpets at all and just using lots of area rugs.
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stellamaris
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| Posted: May 01 2009 at 9:44pm | IP Logged
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I have a book entitled Clean and Green that has all kinds of recipes for homemade cleaners. I have to admit I haven't tried any of the carpet cleaners, but here are a few you might try:
1c. cornmeal, 1 c. borax, 1/2 c. baking soda
Sprinkle over carpet and rub with a cloth. Let rest a few hours or overnight, vacuum.
For mud stains, rub salt on the mud, let rest an hour or so, vacuum thoroughly.
Use club soda for spots ( I have actually used this for red wine spills), or pour cornstarch on stain, let rest, vacuum (I think I'd be tempted to rub it in a little, but the book doesn't say to do that)
For colorfast rugs: 1/4 c. salt, 1/4 c. borax, 1/4 c. vinegar blended to a paste. Rub on stains and let rest a few hours, vacuum thoroughly.
One I have used (not entirely organic) is 1 T. vinegar, 1 T. liquid Tide, dissolve in 2 c. warm water. Scrub on stains. Blot excess liquid, vacuum when dry. I've had a lot of success getting up even awful messes with this if I keep on scrubbing and blotting. HTH!
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Caroline
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SarahA
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| Posted: May 02 2009 at 8:59am | IP Logged
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Does anyone have any qualms with using borax? I know it's rated low for toxicity, but it is still rated, especially for infants, and can cause respiratory and skin irritations. Does it get vacuumed away completely, or will it be another chemical to stay in the carpet? I've also seen it in the list of ingredients for homemade laundry detergents...is there no way to go chemical-free?
How do you all feel about chemicals used for cleaning?
I know this may sound weird, since I've been using them (chemicals) till now, and I know I'm probably going to continue to use them in some contexts...I'm just wondering if there's any effective way to do completely without them. We've been blessed not to have any health problems so far, but we do believe there are far too many chemicals to which humans are exposed. Also, since we do use up more natural resources with an ever-growing family (no, we're not expecting right now, but we expect to be expecting again someday  ), we'd like to do as much as possible to protect the environment--teaching the children good stewardship of what God gave us.
I hope that makes sense. I realize it may seem hypocritical to use them in some contexts and not in others, but I guess I can't do it all at once. As I want to minimize daily exposure, I figured changing cleaning solutions is the first route to take.
Thanks for your thoughts on this...
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Sarah
Army wife, Mama to (so far...) 2 boys, 1 girl, then 2 more boys
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SarahA
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| Posted: May 02 2009 at 9:05am | IP Logged
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I forgot--I will try the baking soda, club soda, salt, vinegar, etc. So many of our stains are set-in, so I may do a test , using different solutions for different spots, and see what works. It could be a good homeschool science day! 
Thanks so much for all the tips--I didn't mean to go off-topic about borax or other chemicals, but I'm just curious about using it as opposed to store-bought ones.
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Sarah
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stellamaris
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| Posted: May 02 2009 at 1:14pm | IP Logged
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Sarah, I googled dangers of borax and came up with this article on the uses of borax and this one on its dangers. I'm glad you asked about this, because I wasn't aware of some of the dangers of borax, especially around small children and pregnant moms.
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Caroline
Wife to dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
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Topic: Non-chemical carpet cleaning?
