I have been making an effort to clean my home with basic cleaners. You know things like soda, white vinegar and elbow grease. Today I had the chance to try out homemade carpet cleaner. One of my friends raised a litter of pups in her spare room. This seemed like the perfect place to put the carpet cleaning solution to the TEST. As you can guess raising pups is pretty hard on carpets and between the pups learning housebreaking and the wet muddy paws the carpets were past stinky and into the realm of lets just rip it out entirely. A hour of Darrin's hard work and a steam cleaner borrowed from Tripps the carpets are clean...they smell fresh, dried quickly and there was no sticky residue. I will never buying carpet cleaning solution again. For under $2 I had a whole gallon of good cleaner! Here is the recipe....

Joni's Magic Carpet Cleaner
1 pint 91% isopropyl alcohol (this is strong rubbing alcohol)
1 TBSP Ammonia
2 TBSP White Distilled Vinegar
1 tsp Dawn dish soap

Mix ingredients and add enough water to make a gallon.
For very soiled areas use a spray bottle to dampen the carpet and let sit for 15-30 minutes before cleaning with steamer. Keep a spray bottle of this handy for spot cleaning.