Help me make my house smell nice

[Pickingmyselfup]

I open windows, wash curtains, clean the floors but it still smells.

Main problem being the rats, I clean them regularly but too much cleaning can make the problem worse. I can't use scented things in the room they are in either.

The cat also doesn't help, the food is the main issue but I've tried to counteract that with a self closing cat bowl so when it's not in use it keeps the food sealed.

The reed diffusers I have upstairs are horrible, I bought new oil from Amazon and I think I'm going to have to chuck it. Supposed to be orange and rhubarb, it smells of neither, just a fake strong smelling horribleness.

Any tips?

‘rats’ ?

I think if you decide to keep animals in your house, you kind of have to accept that it’s going to smell a bit of animal. Especially rats. I have a dog. I know my house smells a bit doggy, however much I clean everything. I’ve accepted that, because I love my dog more than I care about visitors to the house thinking ‘this house has a whiff of dog’.

If you've got cats and (assuming pet?) rats in your house it will never smell nice. Masking it with reed diffusers etc is not going to work.

Don’t rats continually leak urine? That’s probably behind the smell.

Next reed diffusers are lovely, need to rotate the sticks maybe weekly, but to be honest having pets will smell, i have a cat and despite lots of cleaning, airing and an air purifier there is still a slight animal smell.

😂😂😂😂😂😂

You just have to accept that rats have a natural odour which is unpleasant.

There are specific cleaning products to help, but rats essentially pee everywhere to make their home smell of them.

Yes I have pet rats, all boys who will mark freshly cleaned cages so I have to balance the cleaning to make sure it's not too clean or too dirty. I only have 5 left now (was 9) and when I'm down to 2 I'll be looking for a new home so they can join a new mischief since you don't want to have one die and one be left all alone and I'm not planning on getting more. That could be another 18 months away though depending on how long they live. I've lost 4 all around the age of 2.

I'm hoping once I don't have them anymore that will help. The cat smell I can live with.

It's what to do in the meantime, I can't sit on the sofa downstairs next to the rats because they stink even freshly cleaned 😭

I think you have your answer.

Well, I don't know too much about rats, but I'd say five of them would do it.

@Pickingmyselfup @landlordhell , my bad…. I actually wondered if they were wild rats… like wandering around the house!

We got a portable air purifying unit that removes allergens - might something like that help?

one of those moments when you are reading something very normal and regular when suddenly a word is thrown in that makes the whole post a whole lot less expected 😂

Can you move the rats to a different room? Do you enjoy having them? Lots of fresh air, cleaning the carpets, natural oils not artificial ones for the reed diffusers will help but the rats sound like the problem. I have dogs and have kept ferrets in the past (not inside) so I do understand that sometimes you just have to accept that your home has its own smell.

No there is nowhere else for them to go, their cage is enormous! I do find them an extra slog to take care of but I commited to them so I'll keep my commitment until the last two. I'm fully expecting one to go over the next month or so, he is part of my original group of four who were 2 in July and is the only one remaining. Some can live up to 3 but as they were all from the same breeder I'll be surprised.

So that only leaves 4 and then I could make their cage half the height, maybe that might help?

I do have an air purifier right next to the cage, it definitely collects a lost of dust but I'm not sure it does much for the smell.

I really want some pet safe nice smelling fragrances that don't smell too fake, I've tried plug ins and reed diffusers but none seem to do the trick.

They are definitely not the most common of pets and it probably didn't help that I didn't actually mention that I kept rats, I just said "the rats" because in my world it's just totally normal 🤣

Op what bedding are you using in their cage? Try hemp, it’s what I use for the floor of the cage and it’s great, comes in huge sacks from eBay so works out quite cheap it last for ages. Also don’t have too many floors as get peed on and stink. I have one ramp and one floor so they can get into their hammocks.
For entertainment I use cardboard boxes piled up then just bin them when I clean the cage.
So now I find the main smell comes from their hammocks and the bars of the cage so I just change the hammocks when I change the cage and wipe the cage down.

Rats do stink, especially boys and I find them really stinky, but people I’ve asked to be honest with me if they can smell them and they’ve all said no. I think we know the smell so we’re more aware of it.

Price’s candles have ones to take pet smells or cooking smells away. Theres an anti tobacco one too. They arent too strong from memory - mabye they will help neutralize smells x

I think with odours you really have to get rid at the source rather than try to cover it up. At some point the smell will become part of the fabric of the house, at which point you're looking at replacing carpets and paint to get rid of the smell and I've lived in a couple of houses where a faint odd smell in a room has never really gone away despite a full refurb. Chuck everything you can in the washer/scrub everything you can't, and open windows as much as possible in the meantime.

Have you tried purdy and figg cleaning products? They are quite strongly scented and all natural using essential oils.

Why? How utterly disgusting.

ew well if you have rats of course it’s going to smell
what kind of person keeps a rat as a pet

I imagine you need to leave windows open 24/7 with Rats in the house.

Plug in air fresheners dotted around the house.

if the op wants to keep pet rats then why is it utterly disgusting?