A week of Green Spring Cleaning (carpet sprinkle)

It's spring break this week, the weather is nice. I hope it stays that way, last year we had snow and hail during spring break. Gotta love Oregon!  With the kiddo home all this week and he and his friends expected in and out a lot, I figured I should get some spring cleaning and projects done. I'm endeavoring to get a post up each day this week with some of my recipes and how I do things here.

No need to copy how I do things exactly. Everyone has their own way of going about things but I always do better when I see how something is done, then I make my own version of it. If you find something that works better for you, please share in the comments.

Today I'm getting a good vacuuming done as well as cleaning the blinds...we will get into the blinds later and focus on the carpet. I want the house to smell good because I'm going to be stuck indoors most of the week. I opened the windows because its a beautiful 50f out. I know some of you in southern states must think I'm crazy but that's positivity warm for us after a cold winter!

Get out an old jar with a lid that fits... this happens to be an old pickle jar. I have a lot of pickle jars. Don't judge me.

Last time I did this I noticed my jar was not working as well as I wanted it to so I'm going to fix it. I'll show you how to make one while I'm at it.

Don't forget to label it.

This is the way mine was. The holes needed to be bigger so I'm showing you how I mad them and just making them bigger while I'm at it. No need to waist a jar.... even if I do have a bunch of them.

I just used a hex screwdriver (don't use a flat head screwdriver the holes wont work) and a hammer. Put the lid on the jar and make holes by holding the screwdriver on the lid and tapping the end of it with the hammer. 5-6 light-ish taps and you made a hole. Don't over do it and make sure the jar is stable. You don't want to break the jar. Do this a few times on one side of the lid. On my jar the holes were too small so it got clogged a bit. Made the job a lot slower.

This should work a lot better.

OK.... now onto making the sprinkle. All you will need is in this picture....

That's...
Jar (the one you just made)
Baking soda
Essential oil/s - I'm using lemon, lemongrass and sweet orange
and a fork. Yes, a fork.

*The frog salt and pepper shakers are not required but they do make me smile.

 Now fill your jar about 3/4 of the way full with baking soda. No reason to be exact here but a cup of baking soda will do about 1 large room. This is about 1 and 1/2 cups of baking soda. I'm doing my hallway and my living room.

Here is the fun mad scientist part. Add your oils. Some of the normal readers here know I have a thing for citrus scents but you can do any mix you like. I did about 10 drops of lemon, 10 drops of lemongrass and 5 drops of sweet orange in about 1 and 1/2 cups of baking soda. It will look something like this....

Now here is the reason for the fork. Mix it all up! The fork makes it mix faster and better. You could use a whisk but it will not get down into the corners of most jars. This works much better.

Put the lid on and sprinkle it all over the carpet. Heavily! It should look like something out of the movie Scarface. ;) No, not really that bad but you want to be able to see it sitting on the carpet!

Now sit back and have a cup of tea. Let it sit on your carpet for 10+ minutes. I let it sit for at-least a half hour because it makes everything smell so good, but if your in a rush 10 mins will do. Don't worry about walking on it. It actual helps if you do.

When you get around to it. Vacuum it all up. Done.