March 26th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

For some reason, my son’s room has been smelling… “not so fresh.” Kinda a combination of a giant wet diaper and spit up. Pleasant, eh? Makes you want to run right over and take a deep breath!

Sadly, the “not fresh” smell was permeating the upstairs… it was time to wage war.

I knew that the surfaces in his room were clean, so obviously the smell was hiding in his carpet. I had read on the back of my giant Sams-club-bag of baking soda that you can use it on carpet, but I hadn’t ever tried it. I liked the thought of using baking soda rather than a commercial carpet cleaning powder, both because it is nontoxic and doesn’t leave some kind of nasty-floral-potporri-gone-bad smell throughout our house. {this molecular structure is to remind you that I am a closet science nerd.}

I just scooped about a cup of baking soda into a bowl and then sprinkled handfuls of it all over his carpet and throw rug. Let it sit for a few minutes, and vacuumed it up. Easy peasy!

The best part is, the “not fresh” smell is GONE! It smells like I actually clean up his wet diapers and spit up (I promise I really do, even if the smell betrayed me.)

Baking soda is a good friend in our house. I use it to wash our cloth diapers, and when I’m on the ball enough, I make my homemade soft scrub with it. Want more cleaning ideas? I liked this article.

By the way, if you’re looking for other ways to freshen your house as you vacuum, a few months ago I spilled a big container of cinnamon that I bought at our local Amish bulk store ALL over the kitchen. I vacuumed it up meekly, but then found that my house was smelling lovely and cinnamony every time I vacuumed! LOL… I might start buying an extra container of cinnamon just to dump in the vacuum cleaner!

What do you love to clean with?