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How To Clean Cat Or Dog Pee Out Of Carpet And Remove The Smell Of Urine


I love my two dogs and these days we are accident-free for a couple of years now, but it was not always that way. Loki, we got as a pup and we had a hard time teaching him that the back room was not his personal bathroom!

Cleaning up after pets can be challenging; the smell, the horror of standing in it before you realize it is there, and so on! However, it is not as hard to clean cat or dog pee out of the carpet as you would think and I have some great tips for you today.

Blot The Mess

Carpets Stains

If you find the accident shortly after it has happened and you can still see it is wet on the carpet, use some paper towels to blot as much of it up as you can. Do not press down, just gently blot as you do not want to push it into the carpet more than it already is.

White Vinegar And Baking Soda Are The Winning Team

Back in the day, I would have run and got some baby wipes and scrubbed like a maniac, all the while my dog and kids watching wondering what I was doing. This did not work very well, hurt my hands and the smell was still there!

The best way to clean cat or dog pee out of carpet is with white vinegar and baking soda. There are a few ways that you can do this, but I am going to tell you about the best and most successful ones.

The first thing you want to do is get your white vinegar and cover the pee stain. I mean really cover it! Take the cap off the bottle and actually pour it on, do not “shake” it on as you will never cover it all this way.

Once the stain is covered, get some baking soda and sprinkle it over the vinegar. If you put the baking soda on then the vinegar, it makes an annoying noise, doing it this way is not quite as snap, crackle and poppy! You need to leave it overnight to really work its magic.

The Alternate Method

baking soda and white vinegar mix for cleaning

Some people prefer to put their baking soda and white vinegar mix in some kind of spray bottle along with some distilled water and spray it onto the carpet. This can work, but I always feel that it is a bit more tricky and also it is harder to make sure you have really covered it all.

However, the flip side of doing it this way is that the mixture here will stay good for a few weeks, so if you have a puppy or a kitten that you are trying to train, having this on hand can come in handy.

If you do it this way, you do not usually have to leave it overnight either, give it a good 30 minutes and then blot it all up with some tissues or an old towel and repeat if the stain or smell is really stubborn.

This method also works best if your pet has peed on furniture, such as a couch or a DIY cat tree. It’s easier to get into tight spaces with a spray and ensures that you cover all of the stains.

Cover It Up

We have two dogs and two kids so the chances of someone in the house not walking over it are slim to none. What I do is put a large dish over it. This way the kids cannot walk through it and the dogs will not try and lick it up, heck I wouldn’t be surprised if my youngest daughter tried to lick it up actually! Just make sure the “hot zone” is well protected from acts of family.

The Clean Up

Cleaning Stains Carpet

Eventually, your white vinegar and baking soda combination will harden and it will have absorbed all of the pee into it.

Yes it looks very gross and you do not want to touch it, but once it is all nice and dry, you can get the vacuum out and just clean it all up nice and easy. Hopefully, the white vinegar and baking soda combination will have gotten rid of that nasty stain and the smell.

Getting Rid Of The Smell

As you can see it is pretty easy to clean cat or dog pee out of the carpet. But what about the smell? Most of the time, using baking soda and white vinegar will get rid of any odor that their pee has left. However, we all know that sometimes the smell can be really overpowering, and even if you crack the windows open for a long time, it can still linger.

If you find that this is the case, do not worry. You do not have to replace the carpet or move! Use baking soda on the area, sprinkle it on there, let it sit for a while, and then vacuum it up. If you really want to be sure, use an actual product that is made for keeping carpets fresh like a Shake N Vac for example.

To be honest with you if you are training a new puppy or kitten, having something like this on hand is not the worst idea in the world at all!

There Are Special Products For Cleaning Cat And Dog Pee Out Of Carpets

Products for Pee Cleaning

As most of us love pets, there is a whole industry out there dedicated to fighting the horror that is the smell of cat or dog pee!

You can go to any supermarket and find one of these. There are many different brands on the market and most of them can be purchased for around five bucks. So if you do not fancy a home remedy approach, this is always something you can do.

I hope that my method of getting rid of your cat or dog pee from the carpet helps you out. Remember to be patient and that they are not doing it on purpose and in time, they will crack it.

But accidents can happen, even to the most well-trained dog so it is always a good idea to have this information in the back of your mind so you can clean it up and avoid that awful smell!

Resources

petMDOpens in a new tab. WikihowOpens in a new tab. HowtocleanthingsOpens in a new tab.

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Marsha

I'm obsessed with cleaning (maybe to an unhealthy degree) and want to share all of my best tips and hacks with you.

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