This weekend I spent quite a while cleaning the living room carpet with a rug doctor I rented at the grocery store. While I’m not a clean freak at all, and I appear to actually relish clutter, I really think carpet is the worst. Gets gnarly and you can’t shake it out. Yikes. I told the guy at the store that I didn’t need to buy any of the bottled cleaner and told a pretty unbelievable lie that I was just going to use water. The guy at the store seemed pretty chill about it but requested that I please do not use bleach in it like a repeat customer he has. This annoying customer has ruined some of his work pants. So, out of respect for the guy who rented it to me, who is super nice, just don’t put bleach in it. And bleach is probably not good for the carpet either. Natural cleaners are better for your nose.
In general a low suds soap is key. Since I went over the living room carpet eleven times I got a chance to really experience the rug doctor. The tank is pretty small so I ended up dumping the water three times per time around the room. The carpet just kept looking better and better and the water was so dirty I was compelled to do it over and over.
Should you wish to follow in my footsteps, you will definitely need to wear earplugs. Its loud and you don’t want to end up with crabby sensory overload on top of an obsessive project.
Obviously follow the general directions on the machine. The first few times over I used a natural enzyme cleaner to eat the nasties off the carpet. About a quarter cup per tank. I let it sit a while munching any dirty proteins.
Then I used some laundry soap in alternating passes with oxy clean. The soap *Oasis Biocompatible* is the very best and it can go on plants. Although no plants would have appreciated the carpet cleaning water. Just one teaspoon per tank. I also added several drops tea tree essential oil and thieves essential oil blend with the laundry soap in alternating passes. With the oxy clean I mixed the powder with water prior to pouring it in the tank. With one pass I used one scoop per tank and on another I used two. Two was just fine.
I left the two-scoops-oxy-clean-wetness over night on the carpet and then in the morning I did one pass with water and thieves oil mix and then one last pass with just water. The output water was pretty much the same level of gross the whole time, but the carpet looks really good. Between passes over the carpet I did other projects – it was okay. I’ll do this again in the future, grudgingly. Here is a pic of the nasty water is the output tank.
stigmastylepistil 