How to Clean Urine

Your home is supposed to be your sanctuary. It’s a place of comfort for you, your family, and your pets. At least it’s supposed to be. Sometimes however, for reasons that are usually not your fault, your house begins to smell like a bowling alley bathroom. After a long day at work you get home and instead of enjoying nice relaxing evening doing whatever the hell you want, you get punched in the olfactories by a wall of urine odor. So instead of watching your stories, you get to track down and clean urine.

The search can be exhausting. The pee smell could be the result of human urine, cat urine, dog urine, or any other type of pet urine. And just because you found one place of urine smell emanation, doesn’t mean there ain’t others. I hate to be the one to say it, but you’re gonna have to take some time and find it all. It could be that the dog is lifting his leg on plants, the cat is spraying, the kids are using the toy box in place of a toilet, Grandpa didn’t make it to the bathroom on time, or maybe, just maybe, you got a little too drunk last night, stumbled around in your sleep and pissed in the closet. It happens. The moral of the story is: Don’t be afraid to get on hands and knees and nose around. The sniff test is a great way to find urine. There’s also hand held black lights that work well for finding urine stains. When it comes to the question of how to clean urine, it doesn’t really matter what type of urine it is. The urine cleaning methods are the same. I’m here today to help a brotha out. In this article I will share with you some handy dandy techniques for how to clean urine stains and how to get rid of urine odor.

How to Clean Up Urine

1. How to clean urine from carpet. If the stain is still wet, use someabsorbent towels to blot up as much of the urine as possible. Once that’s done, or if it was already dry when you found it, do this: Mix up a solution of 1 ½ cups of warm water with ½ cup white vinegar. Saturate, let sit for five minutes, and blot dry. Next sprinkle the stain with baking soda. Then mix up ¾ cup peroxide with 1tsp dishsoap, stir gently and drizzle it over the soda. Massage the soda thoroughly into the carpet. Wash your nasty hands. Let it dry completely (may take overnight) and vacuum up the soda.
2. How to clean urine from upholstery. If the urine is still wet, blot as much of it up as possible. Once that’s done, or if the stain was dry when you found it, do this: In a mixing bowl, combine ½ cup warm water, ½ cup white vinegar, and ¼ cup Seventh Generation dish soap. Use a hand mixer and whip it into a frothy foam. Apply foam to upholstery and work it in with your brother’s toothbrush. Scrape the nasty foam away with a rubber spatula. Use a clean damp cloth to wipe the spot. If the odor is not completely gone, you may need to risk spraying the spot with straight vinegar. The urine has probably worked it’s way into the fibers, spray enough vinegar to do the same and pray for the well being of your couch.
3. How to remove urine from the toilet and surrounding areas. Sometimes removing urine odor is as simple as cleaning urine from surfaces in the bathroom. And yeah, it’s gonna be disgusting and you’re gonna get piss on your hands. Expect it and deal with it. Start with the throne and spray every single little part of it down with straight vinegar and let it soak for a couple minutes. Next, wipe every nook and cranny of that thing down with a clean rag. Finally, dampen a fresh clean rag and wipe it down one last time to rinse off some of the vinegar. Now move to the floors, the plumbing, and the walls around the toilet and do the exact same thing as you did on the toilet itself.
4. How to remove urine from hard surfaces. If you’re incredibly lucky, the urine that you are trying to clean is on a hard surface. If you need to clean urine from hardwood, linoleum, tile, concrete, laminate or any other hard surface, here’s the method: If it’s wet, wipe up as much of it as you can with something absorbent and reusable and grab your bottle of vinegar. Got your vinegar? Good. Spray the hell out of the smelly spot. Once it’s nice and wet, let it sit for a few minutes and wipe it off. If there’s lots of urine that needs cleaning, fill the mop bucket with 50/50 vinegar and water and mop it up.
5. How to clean urine on a mattress. Cleaning urine from a mattress is perhaps the most challenging urine cleaning scenario imaginable. They’re big, heavy and absorbent. Unless of course you’re dealing with a crib mattress. If you are, blot out what you can with some towels, saturate it with 50/50 vinegar and water and take it outside to dry in the sun. Sunlight, I’ve been told, neutralizes urine odor. For your big mattress, blot up as much of the urine as possible and spray the pee spot with the vinegar water. Do it slowly so it has time to soak into the proper spot. Let it dry, flip it over, and do the other side. You might be sleeping on the fold out tonight.
6. How to clean urine from laundry. In the past, I have worn things that were laden with pee. Cat pee. I didn’t realize until about half way through the day that the smell I’d been smelling was coming from me. It was my backpack. It was disgusting. Luckily though, if you want to know how to clean a urine soaked garment, it’s really easy. When you’re doing your laundry, use your normal laundry detergent and add in ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar. That’s it. This is why I tell you to use reusable towels when soaking up pee. It’s not nearly as wasteful as paper towels and their really easy to wash.

Clean Urine with a Urine Cleaner

The most important thing to remember when cleaning urine is to make sure you get all of it. Especially if you have pets. Their sense of smell is amazing. If there is any urine smell left at all, they will detect it and continue to think that it’s acceptable for them to pee in that spot. If it’s human urine that you’re cleaning, any remnant smells might convince a pet to try to cover that lingering urine odor with their own. It’s a territory thing.

I’m not saying that the methods above won’t work, because they will. I used them for years. However, since I’ve been able to afford to do so, I’ve been purchasing and using the enzymatic cleaners that are designed for cleaning urine. The nice thing about enzyme cleaners is that they are less labor intensive. On carpeting or upholstery, you blot up as much of the urine as possible, spray the spot with enzymatic urine cleaner, cover it with foil or the lid to a large Rubbermaid container so that it doesn’t evaporate right away, and that’s it. If it’s a hard surface, spray, let it sit a couple minutes and wipe it up. Enzymatic cleaners work by actually breaking down urine stains and odor causing molecules. They contain bacteria producing agents that encourage the growth of bacteria that will break down urine. The stuff rocks. Look for brands like Simple Solution, Nature’s Miracle, Urine Off, and Complete Pet Stain and Odor Remover from 8in1. Yes, these are all marketed for pet urine. They will, however, work for human urine as well.

Natural Urine Cleaners & Deodorizers

Fresh Wave.Fresh Wave Pets All-Purpose Additive is an all natural liquid odor neutralizer that can be added to laundry water or any wash solution to get rid of urine odor. It uses natural plant extracts and is completely safe.

Natumate. This stain and odor remover is eco-friendly, nontoxic and biodegradable. It is an enzymatic cleaner that also uses derivatives from coconut and lemon oil. It also works well for other organic stains such as vomit, coffee, blood, and grass.

Simple Solution Natural Pet Stain & Odor Eliminator. This stain and odor remover “combines renewable corn-based ethanol, plant-based ethanol, plant based cleaners and natural bio-cultures to remove tough stains and odors.” I’ve been using Simple Solution products for years and have found nothing better. You can order a bottle of it from Amazon if you need.