CARPET CLEANING

At Clean and Green this week we have been experimenting with vinegar yet again and one of the things we tested it on was stain removal from carpets. Here’s one of the results hot off the press. We’re in the early stages at the moment so we’ll let you know when we have other information. One thing that we have found is that carpet dyes are probably the dyes most likely to run when they are wet so proceed with caution.

General carpet cleaning.

The test we did was on a cheap synthetic carpet, which was a plain blue colour. The 50/50 spray solution of vinegar and water was sprayed on to the carpet and left for a while. A clean cloth was then used to fetch off the dirt.

Verdict: This method did work very well on the synthetic carpet. We don’t think it would be worth risking on a good quality, natural fibre carpet. We do recommend this mixture as an ideal spot remover on the carpets though.


Other carpet problems.

Burns:
On a wool carpet, rub the burn immediately with a slice of potato; this takes the singe out of the carpet pile. The brown tips that are left on the edge of the threads will sometimes wash out. If they don’t, they could be trimmed with nail scissors, if the burn is small enough.

Verdict:
The carpet we tested this on was a plain carpet, the burn was small but the cleaned and trimmed area was still noticeable when the experiment finished, we think that if the carpet had a pattern it would have been invisible. If you burn a large area it would be a better idea to cut out the section and fit a spare piece of matching carpet in it’s place.


When you buy a new carpet, try not to vacuum it for a few weeks to give the pile chance to bed down.

If you have dents in your carpet that have been made from chair legs or any heavy furniture, put an ice cube on the dent and leave it to melt. Or leave a large tablespoon of water on the place. On wool carpets this makes the pile spring up like new, on acrylics it isn’t always as successful.

We are doing another test with vinegar. We are substituting it in place of fabric conditioner for getting the static out of man (or more correctly, person) made carpets. The fabric conditioner is mixed with water and then sprayed onto the carpet, and allowed to dry. This stopped fluff being attracted to the carpet and kept it cleaner for longer. So far the results with the vinegar have been very promising.Check out the Green E-Book for more natural cleaning ideas

TOP TIP

If you accidentally break a glass in the kitchen, sweep the large pieces away with a dustpan and brush then get out a slice of bread. Move the bread gently across the floor and it will pick up the small pieces for you, when you have done this just throw the bread away. This idea stops the possibility of cutting yourself trying to wring a cloth out.

Household.