We need our carpet, cleaner

Olivia crawls on, stands on, sits on, rolls on, and sometimes even tries to eat the large area rug we got for her to play on. We are very fortunate that we have hardwood floors, and that this patch of carpet is the only one we need to keep clean.

When I read Healthy Child, Healthy World, I was alerted to how toxic carpets and rugs can be in our homes and for our children. To learn more about how to make your home more child friendly by way of eliminating carpeting, or how to select safer, healthier carpeting for installation, read this article on Healthychild.org.

I bought the rug Olivia is resting on above before I even knew that rugs or carpets could be toxic in and of themselves. Since she needs the soft landing, as her little knees get bright red if she spends all her time crawling on the hardwood floors, we are going to keep the area rug for now. But this poses another question: Are there nontoxic cleaners available to clean carpets and rugs?

I asked my friends over at tiny Decor, and they did a post on "Eco-friendly carpet and rug cleaning." Check out their recipes for making your own chemical free rug cleaner, and note the safe products they recommend for purchase.

Click here to see why most spot removers and carpet cleaners should be avoided at all costs.

Don't panic if you have wall to wall carpeting in your home. Just be aware in the future that care should be taken in cleaning your floors to preserve the health of your precious little ones as well as Mother Earth.