I like carpets a lot, but I know their main drawback either. Every carpet needs cleaning, and very often it’s a hard durable process. I’ve already told you about different pre-ready carpet powders, which do an excellent job. But there are also many natural solutions. We are going to talk about one of them – lemon juice.
Lemon juice corrodes dirt. Therefore it serves as an excellent natural stain remover. To get rid of the stain on the carpet surface, splash fresh lemon juice onto it. In 2 hours, clean the remnants of lemon juice with pure water from the carpet. Finally, you should dry the carpet away carefully to avoid the appearance of mold. If you want to know, what other ways to use lemon for carpet and other items cleaning, read further.
Why is Lemon a Good Cleaning Agent?
I am sure, my readers always need some proof. That’s why I want to tell you about the properties of the lemon, which help it to be a good cleaning agent.
As for me, I decided to try lemon as a cleaner for my carpets after the words of an expert, the Queen of Clean, named Lynsey Crombie.
Expert’s opinion:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CaRRd38lmzX/?hl=en
As you have watched in the video, the columnist and cleaning expert Lynsey Crombie never throws away the slices of lemon, which were left after morning tea. She uses them to clean her house: steel sinks, cutting boards, etc. To make the lemon juice more effective, she adds some baking soda to it.
You may trust Lynsey’s words and just prepare the homemade cleaning solution, based on lemon juice. But if you want to deep into the question, let’s talk about the properties of this magic fruit – lemon, which make it so effective as a cleaner.
What Do We Know about Lemon Juice?
The great bright yellow lemon fruits grow on a tree. The evergreen tree grows in a tropical and subtropical climate. It has been cultivated by human beings for thousands of years. Very often homeowners grow lemon trees in the pots, which they put on their windowsills.
Lemon juice, taken from the fruits of this tree, is widely used in culinary, cosmetology, medicine, and home cleaning. Lemon juice consists of many useful substances. 100 g of lemon juice contains:
| Substances | Quantity in 100 g |
| Proteins | 0.9 g |
| Fats | 0.1 g |
| Carbohydrates | 4.9 g |
| Fiber | 1.3 g |
| Pectin | 0.5 g |
| Organic acids | 5.7 g |
Such versatile chemistry of the lemon fruit makes it great for lots of areas of usage. But let’s focus our minds on its properties as a cleaning agent.
What Makes Lemon Juice A Great Cleaning Agent?
As you’ve seen in the table, lemon juice contains organic acids and essential oils, which are responsible for such qualities:
- Degreasing
- Bleaching
- Disinfestations
- Aromatization
These properties make lemon juice great for cleaning various kinds of stains. As you know, I mostly deal with cleaning stains on carpets. But as a cleaning agent, lemon juice is so versatile, that’s why I decided to tell you about other kinds of things it can clean up.
What Stains Can Lemon Juice Remove from Carpets and Other Things?
There are a lot of things, which you can clean with lemon juice. Here are some of them:
Cutting boards, made of wood
If your wooden cutting boards are not new and they hold the smell of fish, meat, or onion, you can clean them with lemon juice and salt. For that take 1 pinch of salt and the juice from one-half of an average lemon. Mix salt with lemon juice and spread the mixture over the cutting board surface. Leave the mixture on the board for 15 minutes and then rinse it with warm water. As a result, your cutting board has a fresh juicy smell of lemon.
Spoons and jewelry, made of copper
For spoons, jewelry, and other things, made of pure copper, use the juice from 1half of a lemon and a pinch of salt. Gently rub the things, made of copper, for several minutes and then rinse them with cool water.
CAUTION!
Never use this method without pre-test on a small spot of the copper thing, especially, if it is antique. The thing must be made of pure copper, not just covered with it.
Microwave
You can easily clean the microwave and refresh the smell inside it with water and several spoons of lemon juice. Just get 3 parts of water and 1 part of lemon juice. Pour this solution into the cup or glass. Put it into the microwave and boil it for 10 minutes. After that take the cup/glass out and wipe the microwave dry.
There are many other things, which can be cleaned with lemon juice: refrigerators, floors, furniture, clothes, upholstery, etc. But one of the main things, which lemon juice can clean well, is different kinds of stains on carpets.
How to Remove Stains With Lemon Juice from the Carpet
No need to remind you those carpets can be made of different materials. I recommend avoiding cleaning with lemon juice such delicate natural materials as
- Silk
- Wool
- Jute
Their fibers are too fragile, and they can be ruined by citric acid, which is present in lemon juice chemistry. Besides, lemon juice is a good bleach, so it can cause the discoloration of carpets, made of fragile natural materials.
You can clean carpets, made of nylon, olefin, polyester, etc with lemon juice. Nevertheless, I always recommend you to do a pre-test before cleaning.
Kinds of Carpet Stains to Clean with Lemon Juice
We’ve considered what carpet fabric is possible to clean/bleach with lemon juice. Now let’s consider the various kinds of stains, which appear from time to time on the carpet in almost every house. I’ll tell you, how you can get rid of these stains if you have several lemons in your fridge.
1. Stains from beer and wine
After each party or a friendly meeting, some fresh stains from beer or wine appear on the carpet or sofa upholstery. You can get rid of alcoholic beverages stain, using such a recipe. Take the juice from one lemon, apply it to the sponge and rub the stain from beer or wine with it. Leave for 2 hours and then clean the carpet in your usual manner: with some carpet powder and carpet rake, for example.
2. Rust
If the sofa or armchair stood with its metal legs on your carpet, rusty stains may appear after that. To get rid of rust on the soft carpet pile, squeeze the juice from one lemon on the rusty stain and then spread a pinch of salt on it. Keep the carpet with a rusty stain under the sunlight for 2-3 hours. Then rinse the lemon juice remnants with cool water.
3. The fabric, which yellowed with age
If some white parts of your carpet changed their shiny color with age and gained some yellowish tint, you can use lemon juice to bleach them. For that take 1 part of lemon juice and 2 parts of warm water and rinse the yellowish parts of the carpet with it. Then use the pure cool water to rinse the carpet fiber from the lemon residue.
4. Soap residue
Lemon juice contains citric acids, and it can easily corrode the soap residue after you’ve washed your carpet. If after cleaning at least some residue of soap or shampoo is left on the carpet pile, it’ll get dirty fast. The dust and dirt stick to the soapy carpet surface much faster. To remove soap residue from the carpet surface, put several spoons of lemon juice and some water into a spray bottle and splash it on the carpet.
5. Stains of a marker pen
I know that stains, made on marker pens are one of the most difficult to remove. The lemon juice is a great helper in this case, too. The marker pen stains can be removed with a mixture of juice squeezed from one lemon and one spoon of salt. Prepare the mixture of these ingredients. Put it on the stain and rub it for 2-5 minutes. Leave the lemon and salt mixture for 2-3 hours. Then rinse the carpet surface with warm water.
Watch the video, where Aida Mollenkamp, the editor, shows how to clean tomato sauce stains with lemon juice.
Conclusion
To conclude, lemon juice is a great natural cleaning agent, which removes various kinds of stains, including rusty, beer, marker pen spots, etc. You can clean stains from carpets and other things with lemon juice. It is possible to clean the microwave, copper jewelry, and other items with lemon. Nevertheless, lemon juice not always can cope with old complex stains. It can’t also be used on fragile fabric. I recommend cleaning the carpet with a steam cleaner (by yourself or with a hired expert) if lemon juice didn’t help you with a hard stain.