Today’s home owners are more conscious than ever before of doing their part for the environment. This extends to carpet cleaning. Many of the top commercial stain removers for carpets contain chemicals, in addition to chlorine and other solvents. These have been used in the past for spot or stain relief, but over time they can cause harmful health effects, such as aggravating allergies and asthma. To avoid putting these chemicals into the air that your family breathes, you can instead look for green rug cleaning alternatives. For example, you can use a simple vinegar and water solution to lift many stains out of rugs. If you have a greasy spill on the carpet, for example, rather than applying chlorine or ammonium to it you can think about instead using a little bit of cornmeal and letting it sit for a few minutes before spraying it with oil and vinegar. This can then be blotted, lifting the grease right out of the carpet. A similar green rug cleaning solution for chewing gum or candle wax embedded in the carpet is to dilute them with vinegar and then scrubbing the area to lift the stain out. School glue can be removed the same way, although in this case it might be helpful to heat up the vinegar solution first before application. Read the rest of this entry »