The Biggest Mistake Everyone Makes With DIY Carpet Cleaning Solutions

While figuring out how many times a week you really need to vacuum can help keep your carpets clean, nothing beats an annual deeper cleaning when it comes to removing that rubbed-in dirt. More and more homeowners are turning to DIY solutions to help keep costs down and steer clear of toxic carpet cleaner ingredients. But there's one major mistake that everyone makes when it comes to these DIY cleaning solutions: not actually ensuring that the cleaning ingredients are safe for their carpet materials. Our carpets put up with a lot of wear and tear from daily life, so sometimes, it's easy to forget that they need special care. Using the wrong cleaning ingredients for your carpet's fibers can actually damage the carpet itself.

The solution? If you don't already know what it is, figure out what kind of carpet textile you have before mixing up your DIY carpet cleaner. The simplest way is called the burn test. Pull up a single carpet fiber from a discreet corner and, holding it carefully, set it alight with a lighter. Watch carefully how the fiber burns. If it doesn't curl away from the flame, you likely have wool or another natural fiber. If it does lean away, you have synthetic carpet.

Now that you know what your carpet is made of, finding the right DIY cleaning solution becomes much easier. Most DIY carpet cleaning recipes are a variation on a mix of one part cleaner to two parts, sometimes four parts, water. Making sure you have the right ingredient to act as a cleaner is key to not only properly cleaning the carpet, but protecting the fibers.

Carpets made of synthetic fibers — think nylon, polyester, or olefin — tend to be hardier and can stand up to stronger cleaning ingredients. Recipes using white vinegar, dish soap, and baking soda will likely be effective at removing dirt without damaging the carpet's fibers. However, for wool carpets, experts are split on whether distilled white vinegar is safe. While white vinegar is often used to keep your house clean, some experts say that, properly mixed, vinegar is a good cleaning ingredient for wool carpets. Others disagree, saying that vinegar simply doesn't remove dirt the way a carpet cleaning solution should. If you decide to use a vinegar-based solution on your wool carpet, look for a DIY cleaning recipe concocted specifically for wool. Or, for a safe bet, pick up a wool carpet cleaner, like Bissell Woolite 2X Pet and Oxy Carpet Cleaner. Whatever carpet cleaning solution you use, make sure to test it in a hidden spot first before using it on your whole carpet.