With two puppies and a potty-training two year old, we are finding ourselves cleaning our carpet much more often than ever. We have accidents, plus the puppies keep finding things to chew into confetti sized pieces, despite our attempts to hide…well, everything from them!
When we vacuum every couple of days, sometimes we want to just do something to ensure it also smells nice. We don’t like the talcum-based carpet powders or foams in the supermarkets, and my fiance and I are allergic to them for different reasons anyway. We loathe the idea of talcum around our children, as well.
Luckily, I’ve got something much healthier, cheaper and nicer right here at home. Home-made carpet powder. I remember Marita was recently asking me what I was planning to use my dried lavender for. Well, this is one thing! Stay tuned, because I will be using it for other things as well…
All that’s in this little container here is dried lavender heads and baking powder (or bicarbonate of soda, if you prefer, they’re the same thing) shaken together. The longer you store this mixture, the more the baking soda will be scented by the lavender.
You could use any sweet-smelling dried petals for this powder, just use what’s available. We have a rose bush out the front which I’m dying to use for this, but I have to wait until it flowers. Baking soda is fantastic for absorbing and neutralising odours, and obviously, the lavender smells pretty. I also like the calming effect it has on everybody.
You can use it in the same way as the store-bought powder; just shake it directly onto the carpet, then vacuum it off again.
The kids loved running through this with their bare feet, they pretended it was snowing! I love that it’s harmless and chemical free so they can do this with no worries.
…and here we are: clean as a whistle! It’s so nice to be able to have pretty smelling carpets without giving ourselves a headache, hayfever or an asthma attack.
Do you have anything in your garden you could use as a carpet freshener?
I LOVE this idea! I’ve been wanting to plant lavender in our front garden for a while now and this is even more reason to do so!
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Tina, it is such a handy thing to have growing. I plan to grow a lot more so I can dry more:)
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What a great idea! I think I should plant some lavender…
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It’s addictive, Maryanne:)
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This is such a fabulous idea. I’m definitly going to keep our rose petals after they’ve bloomed to try this. We have wooden floorboards throughout the house, but lots of rugs so that will be very nice to freshen them up.
Yeah Marita, it doesn’t take long at all with kids in the house for it for stale smells to creep up on us:) I’m dying to try it with roses! I do have a glut of daisies here that smell divine, so I’ll probably dry those too. The more, the better.
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I love chucking handfuls of old lavender on the lawn.. just before mowing.. it makes mowing so much more relaxing.. and the smell can linger for days!
I’ve never tried that, Myrtle! That would be delish!!