Homemade Carpet Freshener Powder with Borax

Homemade Carpet Freshener

I’ve already made one homemade carpet freshener on The Homemade Experiment, but I’ve also seen this other recipe around the internet so I wanted to try it out.

The only difference between the two is that this recipe also uses borax powder.  I am completely happy with the other carpet powder recipe, but I want to include this one for the sake of variety and comparison.  As of now I can’t say if one is better than the other, but I can say that they have both worked for me.

This is a good homemade natural solution for freshening up the carpeting in you home without much work, or having to cover your carpeting with chemicals that may or may not be left behind by your vacuum cleaner.

This powder works equally well on rugs, just be a little more careful so you don’t suck your rug into your vacuum cleaner (trust me, I’ve learned this from experience).

Time: 5 mins.

Ingredients

Here’s what we need to make carpet cleaner:

• Baking Soda
• Borax
• Rosemary or other Dried Herbs
• Essential Oil
• Mason Jar (or other container)

Here we go, carpet freshener time…

Step One

1 cup Borax

Measure out 1 cup of borax and add it to your mixing bowl, or directly into your shaker if it’s big enough for you to shake and mix it after all your ingredients have been added.

20 Mule Team says that their borax  is a detergent booster and multi-purpose cleaner.   This is something I want to look into more in the future, I’m not sure if/or how much the borax actually help with removing odors.  But, it should help some with cleaning those smells out of your carpet, as their box does say that fighting odor is one possible use for their product.

Update: Jason, left a comment, and drop some borax knowledge.  Borax is commonly used as a human safe insect killer.  Therefore the another added benefit of using borax in this carpet powder is that is will help to kill dust mites and other carpet critters.  Thanks for the tip Jason!

Step Two

1 cup Baking Soda

Next, add in 1 cup of baking soda into the mixture.

Baking soda as you probably know it a great odor absorber.  The baking soda is what will be doing most of the heavy odor lifting in this recipe.

Step Three

1 tbsp. dried herbs

Pour in 1 tablespoon of your favorite dried herbs or flowers.

For this batch of carpet freshener I am using rosemary because I love how it smells, and it goes great with the essential oil that I am using.

Other dried plants you might want to use are lavender, rose pedals, thyme, or citrus zest.  Pick the scent you like and go for it.

Step Four

20 drops Essential Oil

Lastly shake in approximately 20 drops of essential oil.  I am using pine essential oil for my homemade carpet freshening powder because I love the smell of pine, it reminds me of Christmas and wandering through the forest.

You, however, can use whatever essential oil that you’d like, and in whatever quantity that suits you.  Just make sure you pick a complimentary scent to whatever dried herbs you might be using.

A word of caution: I personally would avoid using any dark colored essential oil.  I have seen people using a very dark orange scented essential oil in their carpet freshener and it makes me cringe.  I have very light carpet and would be concerned about it staining my carpeting.  The pine essential oil that I’m using is nearly clear which I’m comfortable with.

Step Five

Shaken or Stirred

Then, depending on what you poured all of your ingredients into, shake or stir you mixture.  Get a little rough with it to make sure that you are breaking up the droplets of essential oil, and spreading them fully throughout the mixture.  For those of you who took chemistry in high school we’re going for a homogeneous mixture, thanks chemistry class!

Storing Your Carpet Freshening Powder

I’ve prepared my carpet freshening powder in my own homemade mason jar shaker, which you can easily make yourself.  You can store it any way that you like, but I recommend using some type of shaker because it makes it much easier to use, and evenly spread on the floor.

Using Your Homemade Carpet Freshener

Sprinkle & Vacuum

Simply sprinkle the carpet freshener onto your carpet.  Try to spread the powder as evenly as you can across your entire floor.  Avoid clumps and piles, shoot for a complete layer that you can barely see on the floor.

Let the powder sit for ten minutes to absorb as much of the odors trapped in your carpet as possible.

Then vacuum it all up, and you’re done.  Now your carpet should be fresh and wonderful smelling.

My Experience

This carpet freshener powder worked great for me.  I found it extremely easy to make and use.

Before using this powder my carpet wasn’t exactly stinky, but it was a little musty and stale smelling (yes I did get down on the floor and sniff my carpet).  After using the powder my carpet was much fresher smelling and was no longer stale.  At the end of the day my carpet smelled like an herby pine forest which is exactly what I wanted, so I’m very happy with it.

Initially I wasn’t sold on the need for borax in this carpet powder.  It isn’t dangerous, in fact it is natural, but I wasn’t sure that it was necessary.  However, as I mentioned above there is a definite benefit to using borax in homemade carpet freshener, although it isn’t necessary.  If you’d like, check out my borax-free homemade carpet freshening powder recipe.

Ask me any questions, or let me know how this homemade carpet freshener worked out for you in the comments.

-Lance