cat pee carpet
It doesn't smell bad to meSo here's the good news, we just bought an awesome new house. One that's unique style perfectly matches our own. One that doesn't rely on stainless steel appliances to look cool, and one that I know we'll be able to live in for years to come. The bad news? Apparently we were so blinded (and lost our sense of smell-ness) by the multi-colored brick fireplace and ski lodge from the 1960s style dining area, and did not notice that the shag-a-rific carpet smelled like cat pee.

Yep, the previous owners had cats and I'm going to go out on a limb and say they were not fans of the litter box. And our dog doesn't like this either and shows her disapproval by peeing over the cat markers. Good times!

I made it my mission to solve this problem that many deemed unsolvable, and without ripping out all of the carpet and investing in very expensive wood floors. It took multiple attempts, but here's how our carpet finally lost its stinging cat urine smell:

1) Baking soda -- Some people swear by baking soda to remove odors, and others say it can't do much in the fight against cat urine. But we were "lucky" in the sense that we could identify specific areas where the cats had hung out. So emptying three large boxes of baking soda in strategic areas wasn't overly costly. I did notice an improvement, but (and it's possible the smell was just "stuck" in my nose) every now and then I could still catch a whiff.

2) Coffee grounds -- A similar idea to baking soda, coffee grounds soak up other smells and neutralize. While it may not have been 100 percent necessary to do both the baking soda and coffee ground exercise, I'm glad I did because I really couldn't catch a whiff after I was finished vacuuming up those grounds.

3) A professional cleaning -- Even though the baking soda and the coffee grounds seemed to eliminate the odor, I just wasn't going to feel clean until someone came in and did the job for me. And really when you stop to think about what your children may be rolling around in, you don't want to skip this step. But what was key is that I called a company a friend recommended and spoke to them at length about my concerns. They were incredibly helpful and spent a long time on the areas of concern, and I finally feel like I can breathe free. My dog doesn't seem nearly as interested in marking up the territory either. Thank goodness.

Do you have any magic pet odor tricks?


Image via kevindooley/Flickr