I don’t do it very often, but sometimes it’s nice to boost the “clean smell” of the house by sprinkling my carpets with a little deodorizing powder. (I can only imagine that if you had pets it would be more of a necessity than a nicety!)
But rather than spending $5 on a bottle of carpet powder with all sorts of strange and hard-to-pronounce ingredients, I decided I’d whip up a batch of my very own deodorizing carpet powder! It worked wonderfully, and I’ve been using it ever since!
While this carpet powder might not remove tough stains from your carpet, it’s made from all natural ingredients, and it’s also made with products you can easily find in your local grocery store. It’s fairly inexpensive to make, too! Now you can keep your carpets smelling fresh the natural way. 🙂
Natural Carpet Powder
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup borax
- 1/2 cup baking soda
- 30 drops essential oil(s)
OR - 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon or cloves
Directions:
Start by combining the borax and baking soda in a glass or plastic bowl. Using borax around the house is safe because it is free of phosphates and chlorine, just like the baking soda.
Add around 30 drops of your essential oil(s) of choice. If you don’t have essential oils on hand, you can add a teaspoon of cinnamon or ground cloves for scent instead. (Or you can do it like we did and combine the two! We used about 20 drops of sweet orange essential oil and 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. It ended up smelling like homemade orange rolls – yum!)
Stir to combine until the mixture is free of lumps.
Transfer powder to an empty shaker container, or a jar with a dispenser top. (An empty parmesan cheese container would work nicely!)
Shake the powder onto your carpets, and let sit for 15 to 20 minutes before vacuuming thoroughly.
Tip #1: DON’T use ground cinnamon or cloves if you have a lighter colored carpet, because it could cause discoloration. Use cinnamon or clove essential oil instead if you still want to incorporate their scent into your carpet powder!
Tip #2: If you or someone in your family is sensitive to smells, use plain baking soda only for your carpeting. Baking soda can effectively absorb odors on its own.
