How to Remove Pet Stains With Household Ingredients

Clean your pet's mess using household ingredients.

Our furry friends provide years of companionship. Sometimes, however, they also provide hours of clean-up when they have accidents on our furniture and flooring. Several products on the market boast odor-neutralizing properties for pet stains. Instead of shelling out extra money for these cleaners or fretting because you have no pet-stain remover on hand when your pet has an accident, you can use household ingredients to clean up the stains left by your pet.

Things You'll Need

• Paper towels
• 3 absorbent cleaning cloths
• 2 cleaning buckets
• 1 tsp. hand dish washing liquid
• ¼ cup white vinegar

Instructions

1. Scoop the solid waste with a paper towel and dump it in a plastic grocery bag. Do not mush the solids into the carpet or floor if you can avoid it.

2. Blot the liquid part of the stain with paper towels until most of the moisture is absorbed.

3. Soak a cleaning rag in a bucket of cool water. Sponge the stain with the rag to rinse the urine out of the stain. Dump the bucket and refill it with fresh water.

4. Mix 1 tsp. of dish washing liquid with 1 cup of lukewarm water. Work the solution into the stain with the rag. If you are cleaning fabric, do not scrub because intense scrubbing will damage the fibers of the cloth.

5. Dip a different rag into the bucket of plain water and rinse the stain. Sponge the stain again with the dish washing solution. Rinse with water until the area is no longer sudsy.

6. Mix ¼ cup of white vinegar with ¼ cup of water. This vinegar rinse will help to eliminate the odors that may be left behind. Saturate a new cleaning rag with this solution and sponge the stain.

7. Wet the stain with plain water. Place paper towels on top of the wet spot and blot. Put some more paper towels over the area and leave them there for a few hours. Replace the paper towels as they get saturated until the area is dry. If the stained area is on carpet, allow the spot to dry overnight, and then brush the carpet fibers back into place with your hand.

Tips & Warnings

• If the pet accident occurred on a wood floor more extensive cleaning may be required. If an odor remains after the initial cleaning, power sanding might be necessary to remove the top penetrated layer of the wood.

References

• University of Nebraska Lincoln Extension: Pet Stains
• Keene State University Recycling and Sustainability Office: Green Cleaning