Published by: Ingrid King. Last Updated on: February 2, 2023 by Crystal Uys

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My entire house is carpeted (with the exception of the kitchen and bathrooms.) The carpet in my living room, hallway, and upstairs bedrooms is off white. And it’s the original carpet, so it’s almost 40 years old. Between the home’s original owners and me, my carpets have dealt with a total of seven cats so far. Nobody who walks into my house believes me that the carpet is that old.

How I care for my carpet

I vacuum weekly, and for the first 20+ years that I’ve lived in this house, I’ve had my carpets professionally cleaned. I discontinued the professional cleanings a few years ago. Between Buckley’s heart disease, and Amber getting older, I didn’t want to stress them out by having to lock them into a bathroom for the time it would take to get the whole house cleaned. Allegra hates being locked up so much that she actually starts trying to dig her way out from under the door, and Ruby is terrified of the sound of the vacuum cleaner, so professional cleanings weren’t going to be happening any time soon at my house.

My solution: get a steam carpet cleaner, and do it myself. That way, I wouldn’t have to lock the girls up. They could deal with “the monster” in a way that feels safe to them. For Ruby, that means the very top of the highest cat tree in the house; for Allegra, it means following “the monster” at a safe distance, and occasionally attacking the cord. Owning my own machine would allow me to clean one room at a time, minimizing stress on the girls for prolonged periods of time.

As luck would have it, Bissell sent me a DeepClean Lift-Off Deluxe Pet Upright Deep Cleaner at the time, so I had that part covered. You can read my review of this machine here.

The second piece to cleaning carpets is whether or not you want to use a carpet shampoo. I don’t use any cleaning products containing toxic chemicals around my home, so I had been using distilled white vinegar and water. It does a nice job, but I always wondered whether a carpet shampoo might do an even better job.

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Putting the product to the test

When Unique Natural Products contacted me about doing a review of their Pet Odor and Stain Eliminator, I took a look at their website, as I always do before agreeing to a review. Unfortunately, the odor and stain eliminator had fragrance added. I don’t like scented products, but I noticed that the carpet shampoo was fragrance free, so I asked whether they would like me to review that instead.

The Carpet Shampoo is an organic product that can be used as a spot remover or in a carpet hot water extractor. According to the description, this safe carpet cleaner completely cleans carpets without leaving sticky residue behind like soap-based carpet cleaners do. It uses friendly bacteria to dissolve stains and grime. Would it stand up to the test?

I used the product on my carpeted stairs, in the Bissell deep cleaner. It performed beautifully. There is no soap in the product, which I liked (no soap = no need to rinse.) The stairs were a tough challenge for this product. Quite frankly, I was too embarassed to take “before” pictures, but now I wish I had. Even some ancient stains that I had attacked with just about any environmentally friendly cleaner known to man came out with this product. And it had absolutely no scent, which I loved.

I was pleased with the results, and will be using the rest of my trial bottle for a whole house cleaning very soon. This product definitely did a better job than white vinegar and hot water alone.

Special Discount for Conscious Cat Readers

Unique Natural Products is offering a special discount for Conscious Cat readers: get $2 off any/all products purchased through the Unique Natural Products website. Simply use code CONSCIOUSCAT at checkout. Offer good through October 31, 2013.

For more information about Unique Natural Products, and to purchase, please visit their website.

*FTC Disclosure: I received this product for review from the manufacturer. Receiving the free product did not influence my review. All reviews on The Conscious Cat will always reflect my honest and unbiased opinion.

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