While pets can bring you immense joy and support, they can make it very difficult to maintain the cleanliness of your home. One of the greatest challenges may arise for those who have carpet throughout the house. Dog and cat urine emits a potent and unpleasant odor, so when your pet has an accident it is essential to clean it up as soon as possible. However, you may find that there are odors in your house even after you have done your best to eliminate the mess. This is because many pet accidents often occur unnoticed, making the exact locations tough to find. If not treated promptly and properly, pet accidents like residual urine may lead to long-term expenses. For example, carpet padding often sits on a subfloor, which is usually made out of wood. Urine can sometimes soak through the carpet and saturate the subfloor, causing the wood to eventually rot. Overall, it goes without saying that while pets are important to millions of lives, they also present new challenges to keeping a home fresh and clean. Below are three tips to maintaining the cleanliness of your carpets after your pet has had an accident.

Ammonia

Avoid it. Because urine has ammonia in it, using ammonia-based products can enhance the smell. This tip is especially important for those who are training puppies or those who have kittens. The places in your home that smell like urine will only confirm to your pet that those places are potty spots. In other words, they will probably have another accident in the same spot if not properly treated. The best products not only clean up the urea and urochrome in urine, but they also neutralize uric acid, which is almost impossible to remove or dissolve from surfaces once dried. So, look for products that employ enzymes capable of digesting or encapsulating the odors. When purchasing the right pet carpet cleaner, keep an eye out for black lights as well. By turning off all of the lights in your house, black lights can aid you in locating and cleaning problem spots for your pet. 

Keep Paws Clean

Pet accidents are not the only thing that affect the cleanliness of your home. Dogs and cats can track mud and dirt into your house, causing damage to the areas of high pet traffic. There are simple solutions to ensure that you aren’t finding yourself on hand and knee scrubbing the floor. Much of the grime and mud that pets transfer into the house can be found on their paws. So, wipe them down. Keep a towel by the front door and form the habit of cleaning off their paws before they enjoy the indoors. To further ensure that mud doesn’t end up everywhere, consider investing in area rugs or runners to protect your actual carpet from excessive damage in high traffic pet areas. And vacuum. Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum. Pet hair can build up surprisingly fast, and so can dirt. So be sure to not only clean your pet’s paws, but to form the habit of pulling out the vacuum at least once a week to do an extra clean.

Limit Areas of Accessibility

Part of being a good pet owner is knowing your pet’s limitations. If your dog or cat is still struggling to control their bodily functions, consider confining them to parts of the house that either do not have carpet or require less supervision. Doing this can be an effective way to avoid deep carpet cleaning, or at least avoid doing it as often. Accidents do happen, and despite your best efforts there will be messes to clean up. Be patient. Check the furniture, bedspreads, walls, and if the problem is beyond the capabilities of your own home remedies, be sure to call on professionals to take care of the problem. By so doing you will not only find greater happiness in your home, but also more joy in the time you dedicate to your pet.