Yeast, kelp, and water.

That's what's going in my sofa and area rug right now. After a disastrous carpet cleaning a few weeks ago, Max and I both started getting reactions to the chemicals used. Max got rashes on her arms and legs after coming into contact with the 'clean' carpet, and I got joint aches after walking or crawling around on them. It was easy to figure out with Max - no rash, crawl on carpet for 10 minutes, raging red rash on bare skin that was in contact with the floor (when this didn't happpen at all pre-cleaning). But for me, I just felt achey and though maybe I was coming down with something, or not getting enough sleep or something. Then I started noticing it would happen only after I was walking with bare feet on the carpet, or after wearing a short sleeve shirt while sitting on the couch for extended periods (like while knitting).

I looked into some options to remove the chemicals, and settled on a natural carpet cleaning service, Naturell, http://naturellclean.com/. When I spoke with the owner of the company and mentioned the weird joint thing and that I wasn't sure it was related, he said YES indeed, joint pain can be a common reaction to the chemicals in the cleaning agents traditional carpet cleaning uses. As for Max's rash, he thought that was likely a reaction to the detergent/deodorizers used (like you may get a rash when switching to a new soap or laundry detergent). It all made sense to me, so I figured it couldn't hurt at this point, I needed to do something! Max had been playing on a sheet but since she's mobile(ish) now, I can't really keep her on it, so every time she wanders off she ends up with a nasty rash.

So that brings us to today. My couch and area rug are currently being cleaned with an unscented, organic mixture of kelp, yeast, and water. There is some sort of fermentation process that activates surfectants, making the mixture worthy of being a cleaning agent. Cross your fingers for us! And regardless, we will be doing all carpet/upholstery cleaning with a 'green' service from now on. I only hope we can find something similar to Naturell in NC!