How to Eliminate Cat Urine in the Carpet

Cat urine in the carpet is a smell that's hard to ignore

If your cat urinates on your carpet, the stain and the smell can be really hard to remove. Cat urine is very strong smelling and quite noticeable to anyone who comes to your home. If the smell remains in the carpet, the cat might think it's OK to urinate in that place over and over. Pet stores sell pet odor eliminating products, but eliminating cat urine from the carpet can be done with some everyday household items.

Things You'll Need

• Cloth rags or paper towels
• Distilled white vinegar
• Water
• Wet-dry vacuum
• Baking soda
• 3 percent hydrogen peroxide
• Dishwashing liquid
• Scrubbing brush
• Vacuum

Instructions

1. Blot the urine stain with cloth rags or paper towels if it hasn't dried yet. Lay the rag or towel over the stain and gently step on it to absorb as much as you can. When the towel is wet, get a dry one and repeat the process until the towel comes up dry.

2. Soak the stain with a 50-50 solution of distilled white vinegar and water. Put enough of the vinegar solution on the stain for it to soak deep into the carpet fibers. Let it dry for a couple of hours, then blot it up with more towels or suck it up with a wet-dry vacuum. The vinegar will help neutralize the ammonia smell of the urine.

3. Sprinkle a heavy layer of baking soda over the stain to further neutralize the smell. Mix one-quarter cup of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide with 1 tsp. of dishwashing liquid. Dribble the peroxide solution over the baking soda and scrub it into the carpet fibers with a scrubbing brush. The combination of these items should remove the stain.

4. Let the baking soda dry completely; then vacuum it up.

5. Repeat these steps if the stain remains or the smell lingers.

Tips & Warnings

• If you use cloth rags to clean cat urine, wash them in the washing machine with one-quarter cup of cider vinegar along with the detergent. This will neutralize the urine odor so you can use the rags again. Keep your cat's litter box clean. Cats tend to pee in other places if their box is too dirty.

• Take your cat to the vet if its box is clean and it continues urinating in the wrong place. A housetrained cat that starts urinating around the house could have a serious illness. Test the peroxide solution on a hidden area of the carpet to make sure it doesn't fade the color. Don't use ammonia to clean cat urine. The urine has a high ammonia content, so using ammonia or cleaners that contain ammonia can just make it the smell worse, or encourage the cat to continue urinating there.

References

• Cleaning and removing cat urine

Resources

• Cleaning cat urine from other parts of the house