Homemade Carpet Shampoo - Skip the expensive, store-bought stuff!

When you move into a new house, you inevitably find a few things that become a source of frustration. After all, no house is perfect as-is. The main source of my frustration lately is the fact that the previous owner thought it was a good idea to put CARPET in the KITCHEN.... if there is one thing I'm not crazy about in a house, it's carpet! And it becomes a pet peeve when I find it in the kitchen or bathroom. Our house came with a beige berber in the kitchen and dining area. Between Nick, myself, Laney (2) and Champ (bulldog) all sorts of spills and dribbles land on this wonderful stuff...

I get so frustrated thinking about the cost of carpet shampoo. If I clean all the carpet in the house, I need about one full bottle each time at about $15 per bottle.
Whereas it's definitely cheaper in the short run than our goal ripping up the carpet and replaing it with hardwood, I like to save money wherever I can. So, I started looking up ingredients and recipes for homemade carpet shampoo. I found a combination that worked great on our carpet and the added bonus is that I know exactly what ingredients are in it!

We have a Bissell Quicksteam Carpet cleaner, but this mostly likely would work with other carpet machines too... I also used it as a spot cleaner and scrubbed it with a stiff bristle carpet brush.

-2/3 Cup dish soap (I used the laundry detergent we had because
it's got a nice scent to it; dish soap is better at removing grease.)
-1 1/2 Tbsp white Vinegar
-1/2 Cup Peroxide
-1 Gallon Hot water

Mix the soap, vinegar and peroxide together then add the mixture to the hot water... but DON'T add the hot water to the mixture, unless you want to have a foam party!
Use in your machine as you normally would. It would probably be smart to do a spot test too, before you try it on a large spot.