I’ve had this embarrassing stain hiding under my couch for three months. When it happened, I quickly cleaned it with some water and a towel. I clearly did not use the right tools and it’s slowly become this deeper and darker stain. Over the weekend, I finally got a few things out of the kitchen and made it go permanently away. Here’s how:
Homemade Carpet Cleaner
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp baking soda (or more, as needed)
- 1.5 tsp clear dishwashing liquid (I use this)
- 1.5 tsp white vinegar
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 white cloths
Instructions
- Sprinkle baking soda over the stain and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Vacuum up the baking soda.
- Mix dishwashing liquid and white vinegar into the warm water.
- Dab the solution over the stain with a cloth until the stain is gone.
- Use the second dry cloth to blot the carpet dry.
Thank you for the post! I have a random stain on our carpet & it’s too small to get out the carpet cleaner. I will be trying this.
Jen – let me know how it works!
Jen, have you tried cleaning your furniture with this? My furniture began looking dingy overnight and it’s driving me nuts I am tempted to mix a bleach solution which we all know where that would take us! I have never allowed my kids to eat out of the kitchen (I know..bad mom) but I still have no regrets with that one because the second I gave in was a disaster. We live in a very small town so the cleaners say it is to far to travel for one household. I do have a steam cleaner for both carpet/furniture. I just want a realllllly good cleaner (the first time). Any solutions?
Deana, I have not cleaned furniture with this but I would be willing to try because the ingredients are so mild. I have a chair I might try it on!
Hello! Just wondering if this would still be as effective if made with Castile soap? Thanks!
Are the carpet and stain dry for steps 1 & 2? Do you think this will work for blood stains? (Six year old, bloody nose, middle of the night.)
Hi I wanted to know if this solution would take away bad odors from the carpet ? My niece threw up all over the carpet and even though my husband cleaned it with every cleaner we have the smell just won’t go away…I need help and I don’t want to buy an expensive cleaner so please let me know
just a heads up just tried this on a spot on my carpet used less than a tbsp. cleaned up Great… but spent 10min trying to get suds out lol. I used dawn ultra so. I think thats why.
Fabulous idea! I already use that combination to clean my bathrooms and get amazing results. Thanks for sharing!
Peroxide works really well in you’re machine and I would think it would be ok on furniture, just replace the normal cleaning solution with the peroxide.
Just FYI: vinegar is an acid and baking soda is a base. Any cleaning recipe that uses both is incorrect because mixing the two neutralizes them, this negating the benefits of each.
Hi Candace – I have read this before, as well. I haven’t tried taking one or the other out of the recipe because it works so well, as is. Thanks for pointing that out!
Stephanie – I would think the baking soda would have helped with that. Personally, I would try sprinkling some on over night and then vacuuming it up in the morning to see if that helps neutralize the odor.
Katherine – yes, I think it would be fine. Let me know if you do!
Professional carpet cleaner here. π This is great but use the detergent (Dr. Bronner’s would work great too) in solution first then use the vinegar. The detergent will work better on its own (high ph, leaves residue) then the vinegar (low ph) will act as a neutralizing rinse. The sticky residue is what makes a spot get bigger and darker. Baking soda is always a good household cleaner. I suggested using it to get vomit smell off / out of a customer’s leather couch and she called me back to say it had worked real well! Another trick for a deep stain (I used this for dog vomit) is to put down your cleaning solution, then towels, then plastic, then a box of books. The weight causes the stain to wick up into the toweling without any harsh scrubbing of the fibers (something you want to avoid!). HTH, Cecilia
To someone who asked if this would take out bad smells…..my cat had been recently peeing on my leather couch (Grrrrr)…and I tried EVERYTHING to take the smell out. The thing that worked was peroxide and baking soda….and i poured it on a rag and left it on the couch overnight. It took the smell COMPLETELY out. Now….mind you….this (BAD!) cat had been doing this for weeks…..so it was not just a one time thing. I’m assuming it was the baking soda, but mixing peroxide and baking soda makes a sort of oxy solution, which is supposed to work wonders for stains!
Hi Tiffany … I was in a big problem before i got these blog… I used some chemicals on my carpet and it ruin everything but the spot was still there … Your Blog was a blessing for me … i used these all spots gone …. but my carpet is not so good anymore because of that chemicals .. i am looking forward for any post that can help me gaining my carpet back as new one …Thank you
Totally works daughter just spilt hot cocoa on my cream carpet and its now gone π
Yes! Thank you! Much to my husband’s dismay I have let the kids eat in our “movie room” which has light colored carpet. After spills from root beer, chocolate milk, suckers, ketchup, etc. the carpet looked AWFUL. We are having Thanksgiving at our house and are too broke to get the carpet cleaned. But this did the trick! Hallelujah! Super gross stained kid carpet now looks almost spotless (a few shadows of stains remain, but are almost invisible). Thank you thank you thank you! Now…hopefully it won’t smell like vinegar next week!
Thanks! I used your advice and have some pretty impressive results. I had one particularly bad carpet that I just couldn’t get clean – I ended up using carpet cleaning sutton coldfield because they don’t use harsh chemicals and do a great job, but for a lot of carpets I can use your advice in this post so thank you π
I am so anxious to try this. My cat throws up -and insists he do it on the wall-to-wall carpeting (UGH!). I have bought every stain remover I can think of and nothing works..very well. I will give this a try and follow up with results. I have carpeting the color of the one on this blog and it’s not old :(.
What kind of dish soap?
You can get blood out of carpet with hydrogen peroxide. I have done that before, does not dis-color carpet either.
I love discovering new green cleaning solutions! Thank you for sharing your mixture! I’ll try it!
I want to assure the other readers that this carpet cleaner really works! I tried it yesterday! Thank you for sharing it!
Great recipe! Don’t forget that regular carpet cleaning is a must to ensure you get the maximum life span out of your carpet. Traffic areas can quickly deteriorate if regular vacuum or steam cleaning is not preformed.
Yesterday one of my dogs got sick, your rug cleaning solution worked great! Thank you π
Nice post…My method of carpet cleaning is white vinegar and baking soda. It works great for any type of carpet cleaning. And itβs also very easy!!
Carpet cleaning Grand Prairie TX