Removing Cat Pee

Borax:

Borax is the miracle powder for removing cat pee. I try it absolutely first, no matter which surface I am trying to treat. It absorbs odors and liquids right up. If your peed on object can go in the washer, try Borax in the washer. I only buy rugs that can go in the washer for this very reason. On carpeting, try blotting the pee, cleaning it up as much as possible with Resolve, and then pouring a small pile of Borax on the stain. (you may want to check for colorfastness and all of those disclaimery type things.) The Borax then sucks all of the rest of the resolve and pee out of the carpet. It works like a charm.

Secret Ingredient homemade formulas:

You see these all over the internet: people telling you that they have a simple foolproof homemade formula- and if you act now! that they will sell you the recipe. We freely admit- we were suckers and fell for this. Here is the recipe free of charge, because we are more awesome:

Baking Soda

White Vinegar

Dishwashing Detergent

3 % Hydrogen Peroxide

We used equal amounts of the baking soda, vinegar and peroxide, with a teaspoon of detergent. Some people recommend using each ingredient separately, some together. We found that this did not work very well, and did not get the odor out of stuff. The one place where it seemed to work was wood. One of our darling felines decided to start peeing on the wooden basement stairs. When we used this formula on it, it seemed to bubble the pee out of the wood, but didn’t work completely. We ended up sanding. A lot.

Enzyme cleaners:

They are a total rip off- these cleaners always cost a fortune, and they never worked at all for us. As far as I can tell, they don’t remove the odor, and our cats always went back to the spot like a magnet. Don’t pay for them.

Odor Destroyer:

Odor Destroyer is far and away one of the best cleaners we have found on the market, but it is strong, and will bleach/wreck really nice carpets and furniture. It is really toxic stuff. But it worked like a charm on our concrete floor in our basement- it really does destroy the odor. (Quite possibly because it also burns your sinuses right out.) But before you buy, guess what? Odor Destroyer’s active ingredient is a common chemical you can get cheap at any hardware store:

White spirit, also known as Stoddard solvent or Mineral Spirits.

It is the stuff you use to clean paint off of your paint brushes. The folks at Odor Destroyer put “flavors” with them, so your house can smell of vaguely vanilla-y paint thinner, but we found it kind of nauseating. We went for the plain cheap stuff at the hardware store going forward, and it worked just as well. Remember, this stuff needs ventilation, and you need to keep it off your skin, etc. We used this on the concrete as a desperate last effort. But it does work, so if you figure the item or carpet is going to be ruined anyway, you might as well give it a try.

Orange Oil cleaners:

We found Orange Oil cleaners to be particularly helpful to discourage remarking. We had a spot that had linoleum where our cats would mark. I think the linoleum had absorbed some odor and it wouldn’t go away. We found that our cats hated the smell of the orange cleaner, but we loved it. Win-win.

Ammonia:

Never, ever use anything with ammonia in it to clean up cat pee, because cat pee is made up of mostly ammonia, and it smells pretty good to cats. Also, they might think it is another cat marking their territory, and decide to remark.

Bleach:

Bleach is great, it neutralizes cat pee, and is great for all kinds of stuff- but there is a huge hitch. Often cats are attracted to the smell of bleach, and will pee on baskets of nice clean laundry, or floor areas where you have tried to sanitize. Our cats mark it every time, other cats don’t.

Zinsser B-I-N Primer-Sealer

Zinsser B-I-N Primer Sealer is the atomic bomb of cat pee odor killer. This stuff is what they use to paint houses that have been through fires - it seals in any odor. Obviously you can’t use it on your favorite sweater or the living room carpet, and have to clean up as much pee as you can before applying it, but on concrete floors, drywall or other paintable surfaces this is the only method that stops the re-spraying by the cats. Our basement went from smelling like a litterbox to being a usable living space after we tore out the carpet and primed the corners with B-I-N.