Cleaning Your Carpets The Eco-Friendly Way

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As an environmentally conscious homeowner, you are always looking for ways to make your home more eco-friendly. Cleaning the carpets in your home is no exception. While most standard carpet cleaning methods involve the use of chemicals, artificial fragrances, and other environmentally unfriendly materials and practices, there are several green carpet cleaning methods that you can use in your home. These green methods will get your home just as clean without the use of chemicals that harm the environment and can damage your family's health. Get to know these green carpet cleaning methods and get started right away. 

Look For Services That Meet Specific Qualifications

If you prefer to either pay for carpet cleaning services or buy carpet cleaning products (rather than doing it yourself), then you need to ensure that what you are using meets specific qualifications to meet your green standards. First and foremost, if you hire a carpet cleaning service, such as Southwest Chem-Dry, verify that their "green" products are green-certified by an unbiased third party. 

Government agencies and non-profit organizations like Green Seal offer green certification programs for green products. Such a certification will assure you that your service is legitimately environmentally friendly.

Ensure that your services and products are dye and artificial fragrance-free. All products should be completely free of phosphates (a common ingredient in standard cleaning agents that damage water supplies and promote dangerous algae growth).

Do-It-Yourself Green Carpet Cleaning

Some environmentally conscious consumers would rather make their green cleaning products themselves rather than put their trust in the hands of corporations and certification programs. If you are such an individual, then there are several options you can use to clean your carpets with efficient, homemade green products. 

Baking soda and.or vinegar are extremely effective carpet cleaning products that you likely already have on hand in your kitchen. If you opt to use baking soda, you can use it as a spot cleaner to lift and remove stains, or you can sprinkle it on all of your carpet. Allow the baking soda to sit undisturbed on the carpet for at least thirty minutes and then vacuum as usual. 

For carpet deep cleaning, use white distilled vinegar. Vinegar is also a powerful stain remover if and can be applied to specific stains before carpet cleaning. However for an all over deep cleaning, simply use vinegar in place of standard soap solutions in your steam carpet cleaner and steam clean your carpets. You will notice a pungent vinegar aroma in your home when you do this, but the smell will only linger until your carpet is dry, and you will have a fresh, clean scent-free carpet. 

Green carpet cleaning does not have to be a challenge. All you need to do is know what to look for in your products and services or use simple household items to make your own carpet cleaning solutions.


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