Top 4 homemade carpet cleaner recipes

Cleaning your carpets can be time-consuming and expensive. First, you have to decide if you want to hire professionals to do the cleaning or attempt it on your own. Then you have to decide if you need to buy the name-brand products or if you can clean it with the normal cleaning products you already have on hand. Then you have to figure out where you put the carpet cleaner last time you put yourself through this ordeal. By the time you get around to the actual cleaning part, you're already exhausted and you're starting to think that maybe your carpet isn't really that dirty anyway.

What if there were ways to make carpet cleaning easier and cheaper? Instead of handing over huge amounts of money for a professional cleaner or carpet cleaning products made from ingredients you've never heard of, try one of these homemade carpet cleaner recipes first.

1. Oxiclean
Ingredients:
1 cup - hydrogen peroxide
1/8 cup - dish soap
1 tablespoon - Oxiclean
1/2 cup - fabric softener

Start by combining all of the ingredients in a container, filling the rest of the container with warm water. Pour warm water into the reservoir of your carpet cleaner and add 2 ounces of your homemade cleaner, saving the rest for future uses. From here you can use the carpet cleaner as instructed. The best part of this recipe is the inclusion of the fabric softener. While the other ingredients work to clean your carpet, the fabric softener will fill your house with the smell of fresh laundry.

2. Vinegar
Ingredients:
Vinegar
Baking soda

If sections of your carpet need more attention than others, try this spot treatment before you tackle the entire carpet. Start by pouring just a little vinegar onto the stain and then sprinkle a little baking soda on top. You can scrub the area with a clean cloth or leave this combination on the stains until dry and then vacuum your carpet. Then pour equal parts vinegar and hot water in the reservoir tank of your carpet cleaner and use the machine as directed. While this recipe might leave the smell of vinegar hanging around, the initial spot treatment will help restore your carpets to their former glory.

3. Baking soda
Ingredients:
2 cups - baking soda
1/2 cup - cornstarch
4 bay leaves
1 tablespoon - whole cloves

Combine the ingredients together in a blender and pulse on low until the mixture has an even consistency. Pour everything into a sprinkle-top container and shake it over the carpet until you've covered everything. Let it sit for at least 2 hours before you vacuum your carpet. This recipe is best for those who want to use only natural ingredients, don't want to wait for their carpets to dry or don't have a carpet cleaner.

4. Cinnamon
Ingredients:
1/2 cup - borax
1/2 cup - baking soda
1 teaspoon - ground cinnamon
20 drops - essential oil of your choice

Even after your carpets are clean, they can still smell a little, especially if you used vinegar to clean them. In order to make your carpets, and the rest of your house, smell better, combine all of your ingredients and mix together until all of the lumps are smoothed out. Put the mixture into a shaker container and shake the powder onto your carpets. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes before vacuuming your carpets. Now your carpets will look, feel and smell clean.

While a professional cleaning service might save you some time and energy, you can save a considerable amount of money by cleaning your carpets yourself. And with these recipes for homemade carpet cleaners, do you really have an excuse not to at least try doing it on your own? While you're deciding which one to try first, remember to share this with your friends on Facebook so they can give their carpets a good cleaning as well.