It's that time of year again. It's time to clean and dust every nook and cranny, scrubbing harder than you have for the past 365 days, and that includes getting down and dirty with stains your pet may have left on your carpet. Sure you may "treat" the stains when they first happen, but even after you give him (and your carpet) a good scrubbing, pet odors can still linger, making spring the perfect time to really attack those problem areas. So we asked the team at to test four pet-safe common household products, like club soda, that can eliminate those funky ground-level stains and scents. "While my wife and I were out of the country, our dog sitter let my two Golden Retrievers explore the tomato garden," says BrightNest CEO Justin Anthony. "If you don't know what happens when dogs dine on tomatos, let me share — a very messy carpet. So I asked our team to explore the best techniques for turning my living room back into a space where you'd want to live."

If you have a urine spot on your carpet that's still wet, opt for eco-friendly white vinegar, which neutralizes odors due to its high acidity — and works well even if the stain or smell has been there for a while. Start by blotting the area, rather than rubbing it, which will only push the stain further into the carpeting fibers. Then mix equal parts white vinegar and cold water, and pour the mixture generously over the soiled section. Blot well, and then let it dry. (A fan can speed up the process.) Once dry, run a vacuum over the area. urine spot that has already dried, sprinkle a generous amount of baking soda over the soiled section, and then let it sit for a couple hours before vacuuming. Dr. Tina Wismer, DVM, DABVT, DABT, medical director of the ASPCA Poison Control Center, just advises owners to use a baby gate or an overturned laundry basket to keep pets away from the area while the baking soda sets. Although this cleaning method is safe to use in homes with critters, “if ingested, baking soda can cause stomach upset and electrolyte imbalances,” says Dr. Wismer.

If you rent a steam or hot water extraction carpet cleaner you may be tempted to buy the expensive branded cleaning solutions offered by the rental company but white vinegar also works quite well and for a fraction of the cost.carpet cleaning machine leaking Household weblog Hostess with the Motzes used a 50/50 solution of white vinegar and water with a few optional drops of lavender essential oil to counteract the odor of vinegar (liquid fabric softener can also be used for this purpose) in a Rug Doctor cleaner with no problems. best upright vacuum cleaner under 200At first she was concerned with damaging the cleaner but their website simply states that other products aren't recommended because they don't clean as well as the official commercial product.carpet cleaning machine leaking

After caring for my mother-in-law's not-quite-housebroken puppy for a week we had a few stains in the front room of our house that didn't want to come out with regular spray stain removers. carpet cleaner solution couponsWe decided to rent a Rug Doctor hot water extraction cleaner since we haven't done a deep cleaning of the carpets since we bought our home. carpet cleaning melbourne price listWhen you rent one of these machines it is customary to also buy the branded cleaning solutions and most people never think about alternatives mostly for fear of damaging the cleaner. carpet cleaning service derbyWe bought the cleaners that time because we had two coupons that combined to make them free with the rental but next time we rent one of these cleaners you can bet I'll try the vinegar method.

Using Vinegar in a Rug Doctor to Clean Carpets | Hostess with the MotzesFor years I’ve been a Simple Solution customer. I have purchased gallons of it (I’m not kidding) to clean my cat Gaijin’s messes, since she has this horrid habit of peeing on everything that is fluffy and porous — from the couch and the rugs to piles of dirty and clean, folded laundry. (Yes, we still love her very much despite all that, don’t know how, but we do.) Sometimes I’d purchase Nature’s Miracle as well. It seemed as effective as Simple Solution. Then the competition grew. Simple Solution came up with OxyClean. I loved it because it seemed to have a stronger effect. Or was it just the strong smell that made me think it had a strong effect? I really don’t know. My point is, I have tested so many enzymatic products — various Simple Solution products, Ewww, Nature’s Miracle, Zero Odor and Fizzion — and I can assure you they all do their job very well. It’s impossible to tell which one is the best.

I wonder if there would be a way to test them on identical surfaces and then analyze the molecules, which sprays left untouched more or less pee molecules. Bottomline, all of them work great to neutralize pee odor. (I’m pretty sure Ewww also does the job. But the smell was so pungent I couldn’t tolerate it. I’d rather live with cat pee odors. It gave a colossal headache when I tried it. The two fragrances that Simple Solution launched also gave me mild headaches. I am very sensitive to scented products. But the formula with no fragrance works great for me.) Except for Ewww, I spray my cats’ four litter boxes every time I scoop them with any of the products I have tested. And the sprays neutralize the poop and pee odors, and the cats feel comfortable visiting the box right away. In areas that have been soaked with pee, you may not get the same results. Nature’s Miracle, Simple Solution and OxyCharged have not eliminated 100% of odors in our furniture. I’d try Fizzion first and see if it works. 

The inventor of Fizzion explains in a YouTube video that Fizzion won’t solve 100% of the problem if you previously sprayed the area over and over with other products. So, if you’d like to try enzymatic sprays in a reeeeeeally filthy area, you may want to test Fizzion first, and then try other products later if necessary. (And then pleeeeeeze tell me if Fizzion worked. I’m dying to know.) The best results you can obtain with those products is by thoroughly washing the area with plenty or water, and then applying the enzymatic cleaner. So if it’s a pillow, take it into the shower, let the water run through it for 10 minutes, squeeze it several times in the process, then let it dry naturally, then apply enzymatic products by literally pouring the entire jug onto the pillow. Let it dry naturally again. Repeat the process if necessary. But be careful if you are planning on cleaning fabrics. I’d recommend you test whatever product you choose in a small area, and then go for the big wash.

They may stain your fabric. Nature’s Miracle and the old Simple Solution formula didn’t stain our couches, but Oxy Charged did stain one of our armchairs (but did make the it bearable to sit on), and I’m pretty sure Zero Odor would stain it too because it leaves a white residue wherever I spray it. If you are looking for the perfect product for you, I’d start by considering prices (see chart below) and how sensitive are your and your cat’s noses — what kind of odors coming from the spray you are willing to put up with. Because these products also smell, and some can be quite strong. I’d like to add that all products I have tested failed my “cave test”. The cave is an area under my kitchen counter where the cats from the previous home owner used to pee. They had a black cat and two Bengals — one of them so big that he used to poop and pee outside the litter box, kept in that small space under the counter. (It wasn’t his fault. He was too big for the box they had, and the pee poured into the crannies between the wood and the linoleum floor.)