I heard this on Martha Stewart and thought it was worth passing on to all cat lovers. Vinegar destroys cat odors. The enzymes in vinegar breaks down the cat urine. It works really well. I put approximately 1/4 cup vinegar in a spray bottle. Where ever I think they sprayed, I mist it. Vinegar smell dissipates quickly, and no more cat smell! I have used both white and cider vinegar.
Put vinegar in laundry to do the same thing. Sweetens smelly cloths with stubborn odors (e.g., body odor, pet smells, socks) and you can spray tennis shoes and dry in the sun, for foot odors or athletes foot fungus. Keep vinegar in the cupboard at all times. It's a life saver.
Source: Martha Stewart
By Linda from Flint, MI
Editor's Note: Be sure to test a small area first before using new cleaning recipes to avoid unexpected results.
This page contains the following solutions.
A while back I tried to adopt a male Siamese cat. He was a very friendly cat, but ended up with a nasty habit. He would not potty in the litter box. I caught him urinating all over the house.
I am stymied by all the requests for "help" in eradicating cat urine stains and their "aroma". As any loyal ThriftyFun reader should know by the number of times this solution has appeared, the "only" that works is straight white vinegar in a spray bottle!
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I sure could use a homemade urine-be-gone. I have got to say how very pleased I am that this site is on the computer, I go here all the time and find the answers I am looking for.
I posted a few times a recipe on this site. My hard drive crashed and I no longer have it handy, but I am sure you can search the site. It kills odor completely and all you need is some simple around-the-house products. One of them is Joy dishwashing liquid and the other is hydrogen peroxide. A blacklight is helpful to locate all the places you need to saturate.
Good luck
don't know how urine-be-gone works but i have a homemade solution for urine. lemon koolaid. dilute a pkg of lemon koolaid as directed without the sugar. put it in a spray bottle and (after checking for colorfastness, citric acid can be strong stuff for some materials) spray the area and blot with a rag. repeat as needed. i used this on my kids mattresses when they were little. vinegar will work too but the koolaid smells better. urine is alkaline. anything acid should do the trick. try borateem and water if you want an odor free solution.
This does a great job on stains and smell.
3 or 4 drops dawn dish liqid, 1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide 1/2 cup white vinegar. soak up the spot with an old towel, apply solution, just enough to cover the spot, let sit 10-15 minutes then soak that up.
Either straight white vinegar or washing ammonia will do the trick. Ammonia seems to deter cats and dogs.
Irish posted that she'd had a recipe for urine be gone but lost it. Here it is I'm pretty sure :
Mix 1 tsp of baking soda, 1 tsp of Dawn dish liquid and 16 oz of hydrogen peroxide.
Doesnt the peroxide bleach the carpet. I have a dark blue carpet in my home, and am a bit concerned that I will end up with light spots on my carpet.
Editor's Note: It's possible the peroxide will lighten or bleach a dark blue carpet. You could try it in an out of the way place or on a scrap to check before using. This is idea for any cleaning method on any fabric or carpet.
Thank you for all your help. This is a great site. Wish I found you when I had rugs. Now I have wood floors and I need to keep them really clean. Thanks again. I hope this works need to clean up where my kitty goes. She is older and diabetic.
Tried hydroogen peroxide, soap & water mix last night but blotted area with towel. Could still smell cat urine this morning! Company due tonight for the weekend! Aargh
In response to mygaley, never use ammonia. Urine in loaded with ammonia and if you use a cleaner with ammonia in it the animals tend to go again in the spot again to cover it up. It just becomes a never ending cycle.
I heard ammonia can make the cat urine smell worse because there is ammonia in their Unine
I have tried every DIY homemade solution and none worked. I resorted to Arm and Hammer Oxy for pet urine and it works as it is an enzyme that changes the chemistry of the urine.
The mixture I use is vinegar and water, peroxide and Dawn dishsoap. Equal parts vinegar and water.Capful of Dawn dishsoap and 3 capfuls of peroxide. I have 3 boy cats that are soon to be neutered.One has marking habit...the other two are cacthing on! This formula has worked for me in every cat pee capacity. The mixture should be sprayed on and left about 10 minutes.Patted up.I can also tell you peroxide will lighten most materials. So it depends the time left on.Also cats dont care for citrus..adding a drop of orange oil not only masks the vinegar it can be the encouragement they need to head to closest litter box.
I left a new rug in the garden to air, big mistake. A friendly cat decided to leave its calling card. The rug is long pile and a bright red colour.
What would be best product to use to get rid of the smell?Make a paste out of baking soda and water. Apply the paste to the area on the rug. Afterwards, use white vinegar and pour this over the stain.
Buy Nok-Out from Amazon. It gets all smells out.
How do I make a homemade cleaning product to get rid of cat urine?
By Athina
I own a 'green' cleaning company and have found that the absolute best thing for removing any type of urine or poo odor and stain is Dr Bronner's Castille Soap. I prefer the liquid over the bar and it really doesn't take much.
If it's on a carpet:
Blot up what you can, then spray a strong mixture of the soap and water (about 2 tablespoons to a regular size squirt bottle of water) onto the spot, cover with some clean, white cotton rags (old T-shirts without lycra are the best) and leave sit for at least 1 hour. Blot up as much as possible again, then rinse lightly with hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle (works great for mirrors and windows too). Blot again and then leave to dry. once dry, vaccuum to bring the carpet pile back up.
If it's on a hard surface, just wash with the soap/water mix and wipe dry.
This soap comes in several scents (Lavender also repels fleas) and is extremely mild. you can even use it to bathe the pets and yourself. The reason it works so well is that as a soap and not a detergent, it disolves the dirt. I've even gotten black shoe polish out of a white shag carpet with this and red lipstick out of white shorts. So far there is nothing that I've found that it doesn't clean safely.
I mix 1/4 cup of baking soda, 16 oz. of hydrogen peroxide and a couple drops of a mild dishwashing soap. (I found this on the internet. It is called The Recipe.) After blotting up the excess urine, I saturate the urine spot with the recipe. If the spot is bigger or if one application doesn't work, I mix up more and apply. Then I let this dry and vacuum it up. This mixture, due to the hydrogen peroxide, lifts the urine odor out of the carpet or fabric so that the cat will not mark this area again.
Humans might not smell Cat Urine, but cats can smell it. If the fabric and or carpet is thick, the thickness will cause the urine spot to spread out. It, then, might need more applications or a wider application area.
