D.I.Y. Projects: Mattress Care 101 – Taking Care of your Pet’s Mess
Having a dog or cat provides you with the comfort and companionship that only a pet can give. They’re adorable, cute, funny, happy to see you (because you feed them), and fun to play with. Owning a pet is beneficial to the owner as it provides physical protection, emotional stability, and mental responsibility. But it’s not always fun and games when dealing with pets.
They’re also kind of difficult to deal with especially when we get to talk about maintaining them. Sure, pets teach the valuable lesson of responsibility, but attaining that involves a process of hard work and patience. In this article, I’m going to talk to you about how to clean up after your pet’s “mistakes”, more specifically about how to deal with feces and urine stains on your mattress.
To them it’s a normal thing to do. I mean, you feed them, they eat, they digest, they absorb the nutrients, and they defecate. It’s natural for everyone, actually, except pets aren’t really concern with where they dump their load. Now as you train your pet to avoid future dilemmas, you’re going to have to deal with the present mishaps. There are fecal matter stains and there are urine stains. The cleaning parts are similar by essence, but involve different steps and methods.
Fecal Matter/Entrails
It’s probably one of the worst things you’ll ever imagine to find on your bed – your pet’s digested lunch. After you’ve had mental therapy from the initial trauma that this has caused you, it’s time to put these simple steps into action.
1) Remove the solid waste which still remain while wearing rubber or plastic gloves or with a paper towel. It’s very important to remember that you must avoid direct contact with it at all costs since it carries a ton of diseases.
2) Coat the entire affected area with an enzyme-based cleaner. Enzyme-based cleaners are the most underrated useful things when cleaning organic stains. In this case, make a solution of baking soda with water or a 50% vinegar solution and apply it to the stain. This will break down the stain in the molecular level.
3) Scrub it lightly with a brush or a paper towel to avoid making the stain soak deeper into the mattress. Brush inwards into the stain to avoid spreading it.
4) Repeat the steps 2 and 3 as often as you would deem necessary.
5) To avoid the formation of mold and mildew, let the mattress dry when you’re done by exposing it outside to the sun or by simply opening the window to let the wind touch it.
Urine
This is usually not as easy to spot as the fecal matter that’s piled up on your mattress. The scent would give it away more than the sight of it. But both can be treated.
1) Soak up as much urine as you can still absorb over the stain using an old rag or a paper towel. This will save you time and effort whatever it’s worth in the future.
2) Using an enzyme cleaner, specifically, the 50-50 vinegar and water solution. Don’t worry about the stink of the vinegar – it’s waaay better than the scent of your pet. Plus it kills the bacteria. Wipe it or vacuum it until dry.
3) You’ll still use baking soda for this, but this time, you sprinkle it in its raw form (without making a solution of it) all over the stained parts.
4) Now using 5 parts of hydrogen peroxide to one part liquid detergent, spray it all over the affected area. There’s no such thing as “overkill” when dealing with chemicals that have contagious diseases.
5) After about 10 minutes of letting the solution soak as far as it can reach into your mattress, you can let it now dry by wiping it, or vacuuming it. Make sure you remove all traces of the solid baking soda, too.
It’s traumatizing to think that something you love so dearly can literally take a dump or piss off something you also love. But worrying, anxiety, and panicking won’t get you anywhere. It’ll get your blood pressure in the sky, but that’s pretty much it. Just follow these simple steps and you’ll be able to make sure that your bed’s clean and safe for more sleep.