29 Tuesdays: Clean a Carpet Without a Steam Cleaner

This weekend I decided to tackle our area rug--my husband bought it about 4 years ago and it really hasn't been cleaned since (obviously it's been vacuumed). Since this rug lives in our living room, it sees a lot of traffic and had some pretty ground in dirt. I couldn't afford to rent a steam cleaner (or the want to haul it up 3 flights of stairs) just to clean this one rug.

So I started doing some research online to find a way to clean it without using a steam cleaner. Being fair, I do believe I would have been able to get the rug much more clean with a steam cleaner, however, the method I used definitely helped spruce it up and it's much cleaner than it was before!

Here's what the rug started out looking like...

My first step was to vacuum very well, I slowly went over the whole area in 4 directions. Once I did this I created an equal parts mixture of white vinegar, water and a dash of dish soap. I sprayed this over the whole rug twice. I then sprinkled baking soda and cornstarch over the entire area.

I then used a damp dish cloth to scrub the vinegar and powders into the rug. Once I'd done this I let it sit for 5 minutes.

I then went over the rug again with the vacuum, going in 4 directions slowly to get up as much as I was able to.

Once I'd done this I still wasn't satisfied with the high traffic areas so I sprayed Resolve over the dirtiest areas (mostly the edges), rubbed it in with the damp cloth and let it sit for 5 minutes.

I went ahead and vacuumed over it again (my neighbors must have hated me).

Maybe not super sparkling...but a definite improvement! It just looks a bit less dull now and feels a heck of a lot cleaner! I'm going to continue to work on the traffic wears in the lighter areas. I think if I do this routine about once a month I'll be able to keep this rug nice looking.