caring for your home before the cleaners come

Using White Vinegar and Baking Soda to Remove Cat Urine Stains from Your Rug

Cat urine odor can ruin your rug. The odor is so difficult to remove that many people simply stop trying. They end up throwing out rugs that are otherwise perfectly fine because they haven't been able to remove the urine smell. However, you don't need to throw out your favorite rug if your cat urinates on it. Instead, make your own rug cleaner from vinegar and baking soda to remove the cat urine smell completely.

Why Vinegar and Baking Soda?

Making rug cleaner from vinegar and baking soda sounds so simple that you might think that it won't work. However, the combination of the two ingredients works wonders. White vinegar is used because it has the ability to remove older stains, so the cleaner should remove the urine stain even if the stain isn't recent. The white vinegar is combined with baking soda because baking soda is a natural deodorizer, so it removes the smell of the cat urine.

How to Make the White Vinegar and Baking Soda Cleaner

Things you need:

• Measuring cup that holds more than four cups of liquid
• Warm water
• White vinegar
• Tablespoon measuring spoon
• Baking Soda
• Plastic mixing spoon
• Empty spray bottle

Instructions:

1. In a measuring cup, combine two cups of white vinegar with two cups of warm water.
2. Slowly, mix in four tablespoons of baking soda. The mixture will fizz slightly. However, if the mixture begins to fizz quickly or overflows, you're mixing the baking soda into the water-vinegar mixture too quickly.
3. Allow the mixture to sit until the fizz completely dies down.
4. Gently, stir the ingredients until the baking soda is completely dissolved.
5. Pour the cleaner into an empty spray bottle, slowly, so that the cleaner doesn't begin to fizz again.

How to Remove the Urine Stain from Your Rug

Things you need

• White vinegar and baking soda spray cleaner
• Paper towels

Instructions

1. If the urine stain is new, lay the paper towels on top of the stain and blot the entire area. You need to remove as much of the urine as possible, so continue to blot the area until blotting doesn't saturate the paper towels.
2. Spray the entire area with the white vinegar and baking soda cleaner. Make sure that the entire area is well saturated. Let the cleaner sit on the stained area for five minutes.
3. Blot the saturated area with clean paper towels to remove the cleaner and the rest of the urine.

Cat urine stains are persistent, but they can be removed from your rug if you use the right type of cleaner. If you don't think that you can remove the stain and odor on your own, you still shouldn't throw away your rug. Instead, take it to a local rug cleaner to have the stain professionally removed by a company like New Way Carpets.