Carpet Stain Remover

So I heard somewhere, but I can't really remember where (was it from my "neighbor"?) that vinegar is a natural cleaning agent. Since then, I use it a LOT. I have an old glass cleaner bottle that I use for a vinegar/water mixture. Granted, it causes the place to smell like vinegar for a bit, but only a few minutes.

Wait...I think I found out about vinegar when I was looking for solutions to kill those little black ants that everyone seems to be having a problem with. I saw several sites that said they (ants) don't like the smell of vinegar and it is a natural repellant. That's where I also saw it as a natural cleaning agent. Maybe my neighbor told me, too...I dunno.

SO ANYWAY...the point to this entire blog was this: several days after seeing that it is a natural cleaning agent, I Googled something like "vinegar tough carpet stains" (or a close variation thereof). Lo and Behold...I found a concoction that WORKS!!! (I should say that I have some very tough, very set-in stains...mainly because I am surrounded by boys...but also because nothing else seems to work.)

So here is the recipie: 3 T laundry detergent, 2 T vinegar, 1 C water. Mix together and scrub with brush onto spot(s).

It smells great, too, believe it or not. Now, I did try it (because I had to be the antagonist) without vinegar - just laundry soap and water - and it didn't really work. Not nearly as well, anyway. the really awesome thing is that the spots I cleaned haven't "resurfaced." (You know, like they sometimes do when you clean them and the come back...)

The discovery actually makes me want to get down and scrub the spots out of my carpet. Alas...time prevents me. Guess I could be doing that instead of blogging.

P.S. The ants didn't care about the vinegar one way or the other. Wasn't much of a "deterrent," other than they particularly care for getting doused. I guess that action killed a few, but it didn't make them run screaming from the house...