*I wrote this on my old blog a few years ago.*
In January my husband and I made the decision to get our son a dog. He is the cutest little thing and Henry would be lost without him. He was so small when we got him he could fit in my hand.
He has grown really quickly but hasn't caught on to potty training quite as quickly. In the process of picking out the perfect puppy for our family, we may have gotten caught up in the romance and fun of it all. The constant poops being pointed out to us by our toddler (who thankfully knows not to touch it) gross us out. We clean up all messes quickly but still think it smells a bit like poop. We are more than ready for this phase to be over.
I have been meaning to make DIY carpet fresher for a while, but just never thought I had the time. Last week however I was in a FitBit competition and was deep cleaning my house in an effort to get as many steps as humanly possible. With a sparkling clean house I figured it was as good a time as ever to freshen our stinky carpet.
Here is the recipe I came up with. My husband really likes it and even commented on how great the house smelled almost as soon as he came home that evening.
DIY CARPET ODOR EATER
One small mouth glass pint jar
One Parmesean Cheese lid
Baking Soda
Essential Oils (I used Lemon and Purification)
STEP ONE
You don't have to clean the paper label off of the jar if you don't want to, but of course, I couldn't pass up a chance to show you how well Lemon oil cleans goo and gunk. I first peeled as much of the label off as I could, then I scraped the rest of the chunks off with a knife (this label was REALLY stuck on there.) What was left was a sad, sticky and streaked jar. My next step was to drop a few drops of Lemon oil directly onto the sticky mess and spread it over the glass surface with my fingers, rubbing any trouble spots I found as I went. I wiped this down really well with a soft cloth to see my progress and then applied more Lemon and repeated the process until the glass was polished. This step took me less than five minutes.
STEP TWO Layer your Baking Soda and Essential Oils. I put about 2" of Soda and then 10 drops of oil. I did this process until the jar was *ALMOST* full (You want to leave room for the next step.) With each oil layer I alternated using Lemon Oil and Purification Oil. You can choose to use just one of them or to use another oil such as Thieves (Which will make your house smell like Christmas.) Lemon and Purification are my personal favorites though, so that's what I went with.
Some other common deodorizing oils are: You can combine these oils in any way that pleases you. Be as creative and daring as you wish. That's the beauty of this DIY project. (That and you are making something to help your house smell beautiful that has NO harmful or toxic ingredients.)
STEP THREE Get out your Parmesan lid. (I NEVER throw these away any more. you never know what you can do with them!) Put the Parmesan shaker bottle lid on and SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE! You will want to make sure you don't shake it simply up and down. The powder can spill out if you get too crazy and you will make a mess and waste some of your product. When you are sure you have mixed your ingredients really well, set it aside for about an hour. This gives the Oils plenty of time to infuse into the baking soda.
STEP FOUR Sprinkle your Odor Eater on your carpets. A little goes a long way, but since this was my first attempt at getting that smell out, I put it on a bit thicker. This jar was enough to cover my two (largish) living rooms and my dining room rug. Let it sit on your carpets for at least thirty minutes. If you go longer, no harm done - it only gives opportunity for more deodorizing. When you are ready, vacuum your carpets and enjoy the smell. You can lay down on your freshly cleaned carpets and give them a good sniff like I did, but this isn't a required step.
One of the things I LOVE about this simple DIY is that I didn't have to worry about my toddler or the dog walking through it. Turns out both of them wanted to sample the white dust off of the dining room rug and took turns licking it. Had any other product been on my floors I would have been worried. I still didn't encourage the behavior but I wasn't worried for them.
~Jessica & the Genesis Wellness Team
The information contained in this blog is for educational purposes only and as a guideline for your personal use. It should not be used as a substitution for medical counseling with a health professional. The contributors and authors do not accept responsibility for such use.
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