DIY Carpet Freshener

As you might know from my cleaning schedule post I am pretty consistent and regimented with my household chores and cleaning. As part of my cleaning schedule I separate my smaller chores by day so I am not overwhelmed and worked to the bone.  Today's chores was to do a deep sweep and vacuum of my floors and carpets.  In the past I have just vacuumed my carpets (sometimes twice depending on what kind of a weekend we had) and that was the end of it.  BUT, I have been wanting to create a carpet freshener that I can use to help leave my carpets extra clean and fresh, after all this is supposed to be a deep clean.  I have also been researching essential oils and their practical uses for home cleaning. Well today I went and made and tested my first carpet freshener and it was AMAZING!!! It left my carpets not just looking clean but SMELLING clean.  I mean how many times have you vacuumed and your carpet looked clean but they still smelled a little...stale? I know this is a constant problem for me, especially with two dogs, even when my vacuum wasn't sucking up any more dirt so I KNEW the carpets were clean.  So below you will find my ridiculously simple tutorial for your very own homemade carpet freshener that is all natural and free of chemicals!

Materials:

1) Baking soda

2) essential oil(s)

3) Mason jar 

Step 1: Fill the mason jar 1/3 to 1/2 of the way full with baking soda.  If you want to make a larger batch you can, just adjust the oil amount to reflect the increase in baking soda.

Step 2: Add 15-20 drops of essential oil to the baking soda.  If you add more baking soda then increase the essential oils.

Step 3: Stir the baking soda and essential oils together.  Make sure to really mix them in because the baking soda is going to be the carrier for the essential oils, once it has been absorbed.

Step 4: Now that it's mixed together you need to add your lid. If you are going to keep the regular lid you need to punch holes in it so you can shake out the baking soda, but make sure you are able to cover the holes with a paper or something when you're not using it so you don't loose the sent.  I found this lid converters for mason jars that screw on to the jar and make it a shaker, and it was really affordable.

I found these lids at Target, and they were $2 for a pack of two!

Here is the lid screwed onto the mason jar, it's very convenient because the shaker is built in and has a lid! Amazon.com also has some really cute mason jar lids like these.

Step 5: Now that you have mixed your baking soda and essential oils together and have your jar complete all you need to do is sprinkle the baking carpet freshener directly onto your carpets.  How much you do depends on your preference in the strength of smell.  However, I would suggest sprinkling more on carpets that have longer fibers.  

I don't know what happened with the coloring in this picture, but my rug is actually a light green! lol

Step 6: Wait 5-10 minutes for the baking soda and oils to be absorbed into the carpet and to do the disinfecting/freshening.  Then simply vacuum up the baking soda!

All nice and clean and FRESH! Note this is NOT a stain remover or carpet cleaner, I am in the process of making a recipe though!

*Note* Before I put the carpet freshener on my carpets I first did a regular deep vacuum of all of them.  Then I put the carpet freshener on and vacuumed a second time.  This was basically because I wanted to make sure that I had all the dirt and grime out of the carpet so the freshener could have the biggest impact.

I then just for fun, painted part of the mason jar with chalk paint so I can have a nice label for it in my kitchen.  You can either place the paint directly on the jar (like I did) or you can paint sticky labels (found at your local office supply store) with the chalk paint and then once it's dry stick it on; this will make the label neater and more uniform.

I need to invest in some chalk pens, but I think it looks cute sitting in my pantry waiting for next Monday's carpet cleaning!