You may be surprised at how easy it is to make a perfectly serviceable carpet shampoo. Many people find that they like the homemade shampoo even better than any they can buy in the store. One of the most common homemade carpet cleaning solutions is simply a one to one mixture of water and vinegar. Vinegar is one of those magic household materials that can clean almost anything. The slightly acidic nature of vinegar allows it to break down dirt, oils, and other contaminates. This solution works best if you use hot water or if your carpet shampooer has a heater built in. You might be concerned about the vinegar smell, but do not worry. The smell dissipates quickly and you do not have the lingering smell of vinegar on your carpets.

You can also make a very effective stain cleaning paste that works well to get out tough stains. You do not use this carpet shampoo in a machine, but you can use it with a small brush to target particularly hard to get out stains. A mixture of baking soda and peroxide makes a very powerful oxygen bleach type product. Make sure to test the paste on a small and inconspicuous piece of your carpet to make sure there will be no adverse affects on your carpet. I like to use this paste before I run my carpet shampooer as a first step. Baking soda is also a good carpet cleaning agent because it is an odor neutralizer. You can use the baking soda paste on urine stains and get both the stain and the odor out of your carpet.

There are many other home remedies for stains out there. For example, if you add a small drop of dish detergent to your vinegar cleaning mixture then you get more foaming action which helps to get a better clean. In addition, club soda is an excellent home remedy for red stains like red wine.

First, there are many things you can use around your home for spot and stain removal. A baking soda paste is good for neutralizing odor and hydrogen peroxide kills the bacteria that causes odor and will remove organic stains. A combination of these two ingredients is a fantastic way to get rid of pet urine stains. Not only does it get rid of the stain, it gets rid of the lingering odor. Hydrogen peroxide alone is a great aid in removing bloodstains. Another common household item that can be applied to carpet cleaning is alcohol. The isopropyl alcohol that you have in your medicine cabinet is great for removing some particularly tough stains like ink. Of course, there is the tried and true method of using club soda to get out tough stains. Always blot when working with stain removers, never wipe or scrub.

For cleaning larger areas of your carpet, you will need a homemade carpet shampoo recipe. One very popular recipe is to use equal parts vinegar and water with just a small amount of dish detergent. Some people might say that they do not want to smell of vinegar throughout their entire home, but you would be surprised by how fast the vinegar smell fades. Typically, you cannot even tell you used vinegar once the carpets are completely dry. The small amount of dish detergent, usually about a tablespoon in two gallons is just enough to give the solution some foaming action. Foaming is considered a desirable trait in carpet shampoos. This is definitely a more economical solution. Keep in mind that the bottle of vinegar shown on the right only costs a little over a dollar while a comparable amount of carpet shampoo would cost ten times that. Another popular homemade carpet shampoo solution is one made of Windex and water. The Windex brings its own foaming capabilities to the table.

You may be wondering if it is safe to use these homemade concoctions in your carpet shampoo machines because they always recommend you use the brand name products. There are countless testimonials that any of the homemade carpet cleaning recipes mentioned above will work fine in commercial carpet shampooers. However, they are not recommended by the manufacturer and it is possible that you could void the warranty on your machine if you use homemade shampoos. For more information about other homemade cleaning products, visit All About Cleaners.