Hi,

Good news to share! We just bought a house! I'm really excited for it. It's completely renovated so all I have to do is paint over the horrible colour choices the current owners made (and kitten proof it) and it's move in ready! I'm really excited for Millie and Monty to have more room to run and play too!

So here is my question: it's 70% carpet and they have a cat. Should I get the carpets professionally cleaned before I bring my cats over to reduce the smell of the current cat? Or do you think it will be okay?

Thanks!

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Millie & Monty



Ottawa, Canada

How long will the current residents be out before you move in? if it were me I would have everything cleaned because of the potential illness/parasites/diseases but if the house will be empty for a few weeks I think you should be ok! Another thing to consider is if their cat has bad litter box manners, your new carpet could smell like pee and cause your two to go out of the box!

Congrats on your new home, you have to be excited! We have been looking for a home for a year now and it's been stressful! I cant wait until we get to move!

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Yes we are very excited! We've been passively looking for a few years now and this is exactly what we have envisioned for ourselves! It's like it was made just for us. Yes, I'm worried about the current cat's litter habits too, but the beige carpets looked VERY clean, no spots or marks from vomit or pee, that I could see at least. Time will tell on that one.

The house will be empty for at least two weeks before we move in. If the current people move out early it could be even longer that the house is empty. We take possession April 1 and then we are going to paint for a week or so then get movers for the furniture, then umpack and settle in a bit. My two will be staying at my mom's while all this is going on to minimize stress.

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Millie & Monty



Ottawa, Canada

Congrats! It's definitely a huge step for both human and feline in your family.

I think cleaning the carpets is an excellent idea, not only because of what has been mentioned, but also because you'll never have this opportunity again (to be able to thoroughly clean it without the furniture on it).

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The little monsters 3

That is an excellent point! Thanks!

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Millie & Monty



Ottawa, Canada

If you do the cleaning yourself with a carpet cleaner.... I would suggest that instead of using a standard cleaner, to use "white vinegar" in it's place and at the same amount. So for example if your suppose to have 50% hot water and 50% cleaning solution, put in 50% vinegar. My friend owns a steam cleaner and he asked me about a good but inexpensive cleaner and told him about the vinegar and wow... brought his carpets out clean as could be and on top of that it totally eliminated the smell of urine from his carpet. Look up cleaning with vinegar... it's amazing stuff and cheap as can be.

There is one single downside to using vinegar... the smell can be quite overpowering. But if your able to open the windows and all the place to breath the smell will be gone within a day. Another tip is if you do it during the winter and have an air conditioner, crank up the heat as high as you can deal with it and then turn it off and turn on the air conditioner for awhile... repeat this over the course of a few hours and will help dry the carpets quicker and get rid of the smell.

Vinegar is not only a great cleaner and odor killer but it also kills a lot of germs and bacteria.

I'd clean the carpets even if I didn't have any kitty cats. Congratulations on the house.