31 {More} Days of Pinterest: Day 6 Using Borax to Clean Carpets

Well, during the 5 minutes I was waiting for the Microwave to be (mostly) self-cleaning, I went back to my "Clean ALL the Things!" Pinterest board to see about carpet spot cleaners.

There was one I'd pinned about a year ago for using Borax in a steam cleaner that was originally from a site called Love to Know, but on that same page was a recipe for mixing up a spot cleaner.

One thing about our carpet is that it's made of recycled pop bottles so theoretically stains are supposed to wick right off. In practice, though, not so much.

My home office is where the cats hang out with me when I'm working, and thus prone to all sorts of messes. Normally I use Nature's Miracle and/or Woolite Spot Shot, but I'm willing to give new things a try too. I tend to wait for a few spots to occur before using the Woolite because then I have to close up my office and the cats get cranky because their napping schedules get all messed up when they can't sleep in their normal places. Oh the things we do for our cats...

Here's the before:

And closer on one of the spots:

I got out all the ingredients I'd need:

It's an easy mixture to remember:

•¼ cup of salt
•¼ cup of borax
•¼ cup of vinegar

The instructions say to work it into the carpet, let it dry and vaccuum it up. So I did. Sort of.

I put it on, worked it in, and then went back to the microwave. Then a few hours later, once I remembered that I needed to vaccuum it up, I did.

Overall, it didn't get as much of the stain up as the Woolite would have, but it did OK.

To see my other 31 {More}Days of Pinterest projects, click on the image below, and it will take you to my original post.