Natural Remedy For Carpet Odours

Despite removing stains, I often find that carpet cleaners leave unpleasant odours behind. When you have children and pets it is impossible to keep carpets entirely stain free and sometimes the stains are caused by quite smelly spillages which are difficult to shift. I can’t stand persistent smells – I will always have a window open if cooking strong smelling foods and wish my house would constantly smell of spring washing. (You know that smell you get when you wash your bedding and dry it on the washing line on a warm spring day for the first time that year – then get into bed and its a bit like you’re being cuddled by Spring?)

With over the counter products (which are often quite pricey) I have commonly found that the strong chemical smell lingers for a while but when it goes, the original odour returns despite the carpet appearing stain free. Chemical products can also irritate allergies and asthma in sufferers, so it is ideal to avoid these if this could potentially be a problem. My Son gets exzema as well so I don’t like to have strong chemicals in the areas he will be playing – which is pretty much everywhere as he is 2 years old and manages to get into the smallest gaps.

There are many home remedies which are supposed to lift stains and smells from carpets and soft furnishings. Bicarbonate of soda is ever popular – a traditional remedy which is increasingly used in modern households since people are becoming more thrifty and environmentally conscious. White vinegar is again a traditional remedy which is becoming more popular in modern homes. Cornflour has  a good reputation for lifting odours from carpets. I have even read about using chalk or crushed lavender flowers picked from the garden to lift odours from carpets.

In my experience the most efficient odour eliminator is a mix of equal parts cornflour to bicarbonate of soda with a few drops of essential oil mixed in to give a nice smell. It is important to pick an oil that you like as this smell will linger and you wouldn’t want a carpet smelling of lavender if you cant stand the smell!

Sprinkle the mixture over the carpet and leave it to absorb any unwanted smells. (At least a couple of hours, but overnight is best if possible as this will give it a real opportunity to work!) Then hoover it up and it will (hopefully) take any unpleasant odours with it.

This can be used on a specific problem – if the cat missed the litter tray and despite there being no stain the carpet doesn’t smell quite as it should, this should lift the smell, but can equally be used as  a general stain remover or carpet freshener, similar to fabreze or 1001. If you sprinkle it across your carpet a while before you hoover it will leave a lovely fresh smell where any nasty odours had previously been.

We have a house full of children, pets (guinea pigs, fish, snails, a wormery and cats) with endless people traipsing in and out, I want our home to smell fresh and clean without stinking of pets or other nasty smells, but I havn’t got hours to clean and scrub everything and I havn’t got an endless budget to purchase fancy cleaning products which will do the job for me. For me an all round deterrent that I can use on a regular basis as part of my weekly household clean is a really good addition to the cleaning cupboard and gives me the confidence to (at least) hope that people coming into our home aren’t attacked by bad odours upon entry.

Clean office Or Dirty Office

Could your working environment be making you ill? If you are one of the thousands of  office workers in Nottingham with sit down jobs, spending hour upon hour on your bum staring at a computer screen then quite possibly the answer is yes. Very little exercise, bad posture and frequent  snacking will all have a negative impact on your overall health. But it is not just these obvious bad habits that may be doing you harm, there are hidden dangers that you may not even have thought about before.

We are all so busy these days, and 1 in 3 office workers admit to never leaving the office to take a proper lunch break. Although you should be admired for your hard work and your obvious commitment to your job you might choose to change your habits slightly after reading this. The average work desk contains more than 3 times the level of bacteria found on the average toilet seat! I know....disgusting isn't it. But why is it so bad?  Well as we are becoming a nation of workaholics choosing to munch on a sandwich while sitting at our desks rather than going out for lunch, all those little crumbs are getting stuck between your keyboard keys and all over your desk, the perfect places for harmful bacteria to breed and multiply. Yuck! I don’t suppose many of you washed your hands before you unwrapped your sandwiches either did you, so that bacteria is circulating from the crumbs on your keyboard onto your hands, then your sandwich, then into your mouth and your stomach.

This bacteria could be responsible for thousands of lost workdays due to diarrhoea and sickness, coughs, colds and flu like symptoms.

This realisation is causing many employers to reconsider eating practices offices Nottingham is taking the lead as always. Redesigning office environments to provide specific designated  areas for eating, and banning nibbling at your desk. What was once seen as the thing to do is now being frowned upon and discouraged. Some offices are also encouraging the use of sterile hand gels to minimise the risk of spreading germs and causing illnesses to breed.

So if you want to stay in your boss's good books and have less time off sick maybe you should consider doing things a little differently in future. Keep your desk clean by using sterile wipes to clean your computer keyboard and mouse at the end of each day. Leave the office to eat your lunch, it is much better to go outside for some fresh air than sit in an office all day anyway and you may find you have a more productive afternoon after a proper break. Do your bit to improve the hygiene standards of your office.

The best way to conquer such a problem is to enlist the help of a contract cleaning company. Contract cleaners will often sign you up to a routine clean. This could be once a week or one a day. Depending upon how busy your office is and how messy things get will determine the best cleaning period. In my opinion the best cleaning companies to go for are the ones that do both commercial and residential cleaning. I often find they take more care in the quality of the clean and are not quite so splash and dash as many office cleaning companies are.

Another great way to keep things clean and healthy is to clean get the carpets cleaned. The amount of unseen dirt a carpet can harbour is incredible and all that foot traffic soon kicks it all up again. So why not consider a cleaning firm that caters for carpet cleaning as well. you never know you maybe able to get a discount.

One carpet and office cleaning firm I would recommend is Quality matters, these are a Nottingham based firm but have all the right attributes for me and have been a great help over the years.