How do I recover an extremely dirty carpet?

Sprinkle with lite coat of baking soda. Shampoo with baking soda, peroxide, and water. If worried about color bleeding or fading, shampoo with water and vinegar. If using for utility areas and maintaining orig color is no longer an option, shampoo with water and lemon Mr. Clean. Be sure to ventilate.

Keith: call a professional cleaning service. Then, vacuum regularly and clean up messes immediately.

Hi Keith,

My name is Linda. I use vinegar and water all the time on my carpets with a machine for standard cleaning. However, if it's really stained, I use hydrogen peroxide and water. The hydrogen peroxide acts kind of like a bleach so definitely check it in a place where it won't show before doing it. My carpet is a light tan and it works great. If there is a bad stain, I will mix baking soda and water to make a paste and put that on the stain first. I scrub it in the best I can, let it sit a while, then used my machine with the hydrogen peroxide and water to clean it out. Good luck. Wishing you the best.