How to Get Skunk Smell Off Furniture Carpets

Skunk smell is one of those little inconveniences in life that can seem like a nightmare until you get rid of it. A skunk's spray is its only natural defense and if you happen to run into on you can't blame the little guy for trying to protect itself. Removing skunk smell from your pets and yourself is hard but removing it from furniture and carpeting is even harder. If you do get 'skunked' try not to sit on any furniture or carpeting. If you do, follow these steps to eliminate the odor.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Vinegar
• Dish soap
• Baking Soda
• Steam cleaner

1. Begin working on the affected areas of furniture and carpeting as soon as possible. The longer you wait to clean the skunk oils from your carpet and furniture, the harder it will be to remove the scent

2. Make a solution for cleaning the skunk oils off of your furniture and carpeting. Mix together one quart of vinegar with a half a cup of baking soda and about a teaspoon of regular dish washing liquid. The vinegar and baking soda will help to neutralize the odor and the dish soap will act as a degreaser to help break up the oils.

3. Spray the vinegar solution onto your furniture and carpeting with a spray bottle and blot up quickly with an old dry towel. Continue to spray and blot the area of skunk odor repeatedly until you have used the entire solution.

4. If some odor remains, try to spray on a fabric deodorizer such as Febreze. Spray the furniture and carpet thoroughly. You may need to try several applications.

5. Resort to the professional cleaners. If the skunk odor remains in your furniture and carpeting after you have tried the above treatments, you may need to have your furniture and carpets professionally steam cleaned. If you have your own steam cleaning machine you can do this yourself. A professional may have special cleaning solutions made for this problem. If all else fails, the skunk odor will fade naturally over time.

[fredbruno]

on 3/4/2009 I've been in the antique restoration business for almost 35 years. I have used all the techniques described in this article. They work well to a certain extent.I recently had a client whose dog was sprayed by a skunk and decided to use a very expensive antique rug and an equally expensive couch as a towel. The owners came to me as a last resort. I had read an article in a antique restoration trade magazine about a new product called Room Shocker. It removes severe orders by disinfecting and decontaminating the entire room. This new technology delivers chlorine dioxide which has been around for many years to disinfect and remove odors in large industry.I decided to give it a shot. The results were astonishing. It completely removed the skunk odor. I then tried it on some other antique furniture that had cigarette odors on it. The product works so well I went ahead and bought a case to