Having a pet can be a great experience. They’re loyal, they’re compassionate and they’re always happy to see you, which can help you brighten up any bad day. But as most pet owners know, having a pet can mean dealing with all of their smells.
Luckily, if you have a pet, it doesn’t mean that your home has to smell like them. Here are just a few miracle carpet cleaning chemicals that every pet owner should have on hand.
Pet Enzymes
If your pet has an accident on your carpet, some people will use regular carpet cleaners to try and clean the odor, but this won’t work. Pets have certain enzymes in their urine that won’t clear up with regular carpet cleaners. This is why it’s important to have pet enzyme cleaners on hand. Nature’s Miracle and Rocco and Roxie are two great brands that are pet enzyme cleaners for carpets. Make sure to read the directions before using, and always make sure to blot up the urine first and never rub it in.
Vinegar
Vinegar is another great product to have on hand for your carpets. Vinegar contains the right ingredients that will help break up the enzymes in your pet’s urine. You should always dilute the vinegar with water, put it in a spray bottle and spray the area that contains an odor. Again, make sure to blot it up and not rub it, as rubbing it will only allow the urine to seep in deeper. Although your home will smell like vinegar until the scent wears off, it’s much better to smell vinegar than urine or feces. The best way to help the vinegar smell disappear is to have it air dry as soon as possible, so make sure to put a fan on the area or open a window.
Baking Soda
Baking soda is a great way to capture all the smells of your animal. Simply sprinkle baking soda on the carpet, either in a certain area that smells or all over the entire carpet, and allow it to sit for about 15 minutes. The baking soda will work to collect any odors from your carpet. After 15 minutes, simply vacuum up the baking soda, and you will have a fresh smelling room completely removed of any pet odors.
Arm & Hammer also makes a carpet deodorizer specifically for pet owners. This is a combination of baking soda and other scents to make your carpet smell fresh. This product works exactly like regular baking soda, so you will simply need to sprinkle it on your carpet, allow it to work, and then vacuum it up.
Carpet Cleaner Solutions
If you have a household carpet cleaner, you should contact the manufacturer and find out if they have a solution that you can buy specifically for pet owners. Bissel and Hoover have products for their carpet cleaning machines that contain extra ingredients to alleviate the smells of a pet. If you clean your carpets on a regular basis, you should make sure to use this solution instead of the regular type that you use, as it will help control any scents from your pet.
Kathryn Thompson is a freelance writer and avid blogger
who enjoys writing about anything from pet care to household cleaning products.
Vinegar and baking soda are the two most helpful things you can have in a household, right up there with duct tape and WD-40. Thanks for the tips.
Hahaha very true!
Great info for every pet owner. I use vinegar and baking soda for most of my cleaning requirements and they work very well. Thanks for the info. Best Regards, Wendy {UBC}
These ideas can also be used for potty training toddlers. Ha!
Great tips! I have used a couple of them myself, and are a common “staple” found in our cleaning closet.
I’m researching getting a pet for our family so this is wonderful information! Thank you.
Great post! I’m a real fan of vinegar and baking soda. I also use sparkling plain water on carpet as it’s natural and i fizz out the dirt lol … it does work great and i do tend to soak the area but then just keep towelling it up or use a cleaner to suck it up.
Great tips… our middle child has allergies and eczema, so we can’t use chemicals because of her, so love the tips.
Great tips. Last fall my little Min Pin was pretty sick and I had to get odor out of a new couch. I bought the over the counter products but in the end it was the vinegar that did the trick.
We use baking soda a lot to absorb odors. Thanks for the tips!
I have two cats and I can honestly say that they make me a happier person. Being someone who lives with severe depression, that is very important. However, I can totally relate to the frequent odd odor and needing something that can really get down into the carpet fibers to get the pet odor out. I have used vinegar and baking soda on my carpets when my younger cat was a kitten and had begun spraying. What a nightmare! But vinegar and baking soda really worked and I’m so glad that I didn’t wind up being that person whose house smells like pets!
Love vinegar in the floor cleaner. Love even more that we are down to less than half the carpet this house originally started with.
Our cat Oliver, had a bad UTI over the summer so he had a lot of accidents and threw up a lot. Luckily he wasn’t completely blocked and the medicine worked pretty fast. The vinegar and baking soda really helped clean up the messes!
With pets in the house, having a good understanding of the best and easy accessible carpet cleaning agents and tools can help in managing your carpets.