CARPET CLEANING IN YOUR UNDERWEAR

We have a really light-colored braided rug in our living room that shows every speck of dirt and every tiny stain!  Remind me to never mail order a rug again!  While I’m not the house cleaning fanatic that I used to be, I still don’t want our home to look like a pig pen!  So occasionally, I go to work on those rug stains.

I don’t know about you, but I get a bit concerned when spot removing products in spray bottles have this caution statement, “Avoid contact with skin and eyes.  Wear suitable protective clothing.  Avoid breathing vapor, spray or mist.”  Being that I’m spraying this stuff on my carpet, how is it that I’m to avoid getting those minute particles on my skin and into my lungs?

Regarding “personal protection” for general use the MSD (Material Safety Data) Sheet for one such product offers these suggestions:

Respiratory Protection

Where exposure cannot be adequately controlled by general or local ventilation, use appropriate respiratory protection to prevent over exposure.  An approved dust/mist respirator would be recommended.

Eye Protection: Chemical Resistant goggles or face shield

Protective Gloves: Water Impervious (Latex or Neoprene) Recommended

What are we supposed to do, don a hazardous material suit while cleaning our house?  Not this girl!  I’ve found something that works quite well for removing carpet stains without needing HazMat training or catastrophic survival gear. 

The steps to spotless carpets are not only simple and inexpensive;

they are so safe you can tackle them in your underwear if you prefer:

1. Always attack the stain as soon as you notice it.
2. While the stain is still wet, using a white or light-colored rag, blot the stain soaking up as much as possible.
3. Don’t rub!  Rubbing forces the stain into the fabric while blotting absorbs it into your cleaning rag.
4. *Repeatedly dip clean rag into a mixture of ¼ cup water with ¼ cup white vinegar and dab the carpet until the solution has embedded the remaining stain.
5. Dip the cloth in the solution again, place cloth on the stain and weigh rag down for 15 minutes giving the stain time to break down.
6. Repeat these steps until the stain is gone

* Note: On dry stains, begin with step #4.

Why in the world hadn’t someone thunk of this a long time ago?  Oh yeah, they did!  Regardless of how toxic the contents might be, for some reason we are just more attracted to the pretty packages on the store shelves and the persuasive, but deceptive media hype.  You don’t have to get sucked in… in order to get your stains out!

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845