Carpets

In general, carpets and indoor pets are a dangerous combination. You may love having your pet in the house, but you should be prepared to undertake the task of cleaning pet urine from carpet not just once, but many times. You may have paid good money for a professional dog trainer to potty train your pet, but there'll be times when your pet is going to urinate on your carpet. After all, if your pet needs to go, he'll go wherever the need to catches him.

Unless you don't care much about your carpet and you don't mind living in a house that smells of pet urine, you'll need to put it on top of your list of priorities. The only way you can dodge the carpet pet stains is if you kick your pet out and never let him inside your house.

Whether it's a cat, dog, hamster or some other pet that stains your carpet, pet urine is not something you'll want to remain on your carpet. Pet urine has an extremely powerful odor and it leaves a visible spot on carpets.

Here's a tip to removing pet odor from carpet with the help of baking soda and vinegar: The pet stain needs to be completely dried down first before applying baking soda. Take some paper towels and press them down against the urine on the carpet. When you have most of the urine out, dampen the area with clean water. Next, sprinkle baking soda over it. Allow the baking soda to dry for several hours (even overnight). Vacuum over the area the next day.

Alternatively, you can use white vinegar. Mix 1/2 cup of white vinegar with 1/4 cup of warm water. Pour the solution over the stained area. Place a dry towel over the area and press it down with a heavy object. Keep the towel pressed over the area for at least two hours or even overnight. The next morning, take off the towel and clean the area with a soft hairbrush.

Sometimes, you'll see no visible stains on your carpet but you could definitely smell them. It can be rather hard to get rid of pet odor from your carpet if you are unable to find where exactly on your carpet the odor is coming. It could be that your pet urinated in a hard-to-reach corner of your house. Or it could be that the odor has become so impregnated into the carpet that it's virtually impossible for you to determine exactly where it coming from.

For those hard-to-see pet urine stains, use a black UV light. Close the blinds, turn off all the lights and turn on the UV black light. Pet urine stains glow under black UV light so you should be able to see where the pet odors are coming from and then you can take steps at removing them.