The Genius Cotton Ball Trick That Gives Your Carpet A Refresh While Vacuuming

The carpet tends to retain a lot of smells from around your house. If you have pets, kids, or even just an affinity for eating messy takeout in front of the TV, chances are you've had something with a strong scent spilled onto your carpet. Even after cleaning the spot, sometimes the odor remains. Vacuuming alone doesn't help much no matter how often you do it, but there is a way to replace those old smells with fresh ones. All you'll need are cotton balls, essential oils, and your vacuum cleaner.

There are many products and genius hacks that are meant to eradicate unwanted home odors, but there aren't many with the sole purpose of adding a refreshing scent to your carpets. That's why using essential oils is such a great trick. Essential oils are produced by extracting plants' natural byproducts through pressing or distillation, making them organic, environmentally friendly, and much safer to use than chemical deodorizers, neutralizers, or artificial scents. And where candles only mask scents while they are burning, the scents of essential oils can linger in the air for days, meaning you can refresh the scent every time you vacuum and it won't ever fade.

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Cotton balls are extremely absorbent and essential oils are highly concentrated. Together, they pack quite an aromatic punch in almost any scent you prefer. Lavender, citrus, rose, ylang-ylang, and eucalyptus are all popular essential oil scents, but bolder scents like peppermint and sandalwood are also common. If you still have an old reliable vacuum cleaner that uses traditional bags, simply soak a cotton ball in the essential oil scent of your choice and place it inside the vacuum bag. As you vacuum around the room, the scent will be dispersed through the machine's exhaust port. Because the oil isn't making direct contact with the carpet fibers, the concentration of oil on the cotton ball has to be high, hence the soaking.

If, however, you use one of the more modern bagless vacuum models, all you need to do is add a few drops of essential oil onto a cotton ball. Then, tear the cotton ball into little pieces of fluff and place it on the carpet you intend to vacuum. The oils (heated up by the machine's motor) will freshen up your carpet fibers as you move the vacuum around your space, infusing them with this new scent. Because the oils are dropped directly onto the cotton ball and not your carpet, you're not in danger of damaging your rugs.

Before there were doctors in every town, many people went to local herbalists and apothecaries, relying on medicinal herbs and plant extracts to heal their ills. Today, many of those old remedies are grouped into the category of "alternative medicine," with one of the most widespread being aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is the practice of using specific scents to treat certain conditions, and essential oils or concentrated natural scents are often used in aromatherapy treatment. By knowing how each scent is beneficial, it's possible to use this cotton ball vacuum hack to improve the mood of the room as well as the scent.

Different scents have different abilities, so you're going to want to use the scents that best match the intention of the room you're vacuuming in. For example, lavender is well-known to help with sleep, so add lavender oil to your cotton balls when vacuuming the bedroom. Rosemary oil, on the other hand, improves focus and cognitive brain function, making it a great way to set up your home office for maximum focus. Citrus oils help boost mood and reduce pain, meaning that they would be great for the home gym or wherever you work out. By selecting an essential oil that not only smells great but also helps enhance the room that it's in, you'll give your carpets — and your home — an even greater refresh.