How To Deodorize Your Carpets Naturally
Whether you have pets or you really love an old carpet, unpleasant odor can be a really serious issue.
- June 22, 2020
The lack of proper carpet fiber cleaning will make residue and dirt build up, causing your carpet to smell strange.
Plus, more than other surfaces in your house, like your walls or floors, carpets are porous. They’re made of fibers, with lots of nooks and crannies between the weaves or pile, meaning there are lots of spots to absorb odors.
You can spot-clean a carpet for stains or steam-clean it for disinfection, but if your carpet is in otherwise good shape and you’re just noticing a persistent smell in the room, you might want to deodorize it.
Thankfully, there are ways for carpet deodorizing that may not require a special shopping trip, as they use ingredients that you probably already have at home.
Why Use Baking Soda On Your Carpet
Baking soda is a proven odor absorber, plus it’s cheap and all-natural. Baking soda’s particles go deep down into the carpet, past the point you can’t even see, all the way to the base to absorb and neutralize odors. The particles can then be lifted out with a vacuum, leaving you with a odor free carpet.
What You”ll Need
- One box of baking soda
- Vacuum
- Your preferred essential oil
How to Make a Baking Soda Carpet Deodorizer
Make a mixture of baking soda and essential oils. You can remix the recipe to suit your taste, but a good rule of thumb is about 10 to 15 drops of essential oil for every cup of baking soda. Some essential oil scents that work great are lavender, lemon, tea tree, rosemary and eucalyptus—but you can buy or blend whatever scent you like.
To make your carpet deodorizer easy to use and dispense, you can prepare it ahead of time in a shaker jar—like a “cheese shaker” or the type you might use for salt or sugar at the table.
How To Deodorize Your Carpet With Baking Soda
Vacuum your carpet first. (Mixing baking soda with dirt won’t be very effective). You want to start with a carpet that’s as clean as possible. Vacuum your carpet to pick up any of the big particles of dirt or loose fibers. The bottom of your shoes contains oil and dirt and the constant contact with your carpet can grind away the surface of your carpet and leave dirt deep in the fibers.
Sprinkle baking soda + essential oil mix liberally all over the carpet —either right from the box or using a fine-mesh sieve. If you have a deep-pile carpet, sprinkle small sections at a time, then work the baking soda into the carpet with your fingers before moving on to the next section.
Be generous in your application. Then, work the baking soda down into the carpet fibers as deeply as you can, using a brush, a broom or your fingertips.
This is especially necessary if your carpet is shaggy and long; you want to make sure every part gets coated with soda.
Let it sit: Wait a few hours or ideally overnight for the baking soda to absorb the odors.
Vacuum up the baking soda. Work slowly, since that much baking soda is going to take awhile to vacuum up. You’ll need to go over each section of the carpet several times to get the job done. As long as it didn’t get wet, the baking soda should come right up.
Also Read
Carpet Cleaners and Deodorizing Products
Choosing the right kind of carpet cleaner and deodorizer will deliver great results in terms of making your rugs smell fresh and clean.
This used to be an expensive item, but the technology has advanced, and the price of the cleaners have been significantly reduced.
The carpet cleaning solutions have deodorizing qualities. Some deodorizers are especially formulated to deal with tough odors like the ones resulting from mold formation or from constant smoking in the room.
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