Light carpet stains & need a recipe for steam carpet cleaner

[brownay2]

I have all yucky cream colored carpet through my house, food stains galore. So has anyone used a natural recipe for use in a steam cleaner that gets almost stains out, and brightens my dingy cream carpets?

Has anyone used simple green? I don't think that is natural though. Maybe I will try some vinegar, very hot water, and some EO's. I also heard that you should use very hot water and just use water at first so the fibers in the carpet soften, and the second swipe puts the soultion on and is able to break up stains. Anyone familiar with this technique?

Thanks,
NAY

[peekyboo]

I use Simple Green in my Bissel carpet cleaner (it has a seperate detergent tank, so I do about 1/3 Simple Green 2/3 water solution). It's what we used on the carpets in college when I worked custodial. Here's their FAQ page - http://consumer.simplegreen.com/cons_faqs.php

[SharonAnne]

i used oxyclean in my steam cleaner to get stains out of my furniture a few yeas ago. Worked absolutely awesomely!

[memory maker]

Originally Posted by SharonAnne

i used oxyclean in my steam cleaner to get stains out of my furniture a few yeas ago. Worked absolutely awesomely!

I used oxyclean the other day and the majority of my stains are gone

[Boadicea]

I haven't tried it in a steam cleaner, but I use Oxiclean when I scrub the carpet by hand. (And yes, I do mean the whole carpet -- in the hall, living room, and DD's bedroom. The former owners of this house installed off-white berber just before selling the house to us and I can't bring myself to replace it so soon. What were they thinking? ) It works fantabulous on the stains, but I find that I need to scrub the entire carpet because it works TOO well on the stains -- it will leave white "patches" on the carpet where I cleaned, and then the rest of it will look dirty.

I clean our carpets about twice a year, and then I have them professionally cleaned twice a year, too. Even with two kids of my own and an in-home daycare, they still look great!