DS's friends say our house smells

[fruitstick]

I know it does but I'm mortified. DS's friends are also quite a bit wealthier than us with bigger houses etc but I don't want DS to feel he can't bring people round.

We keep the house clean but have a dog and two cats. The cats have litter trays upstairs which don't help.

I blame our hallway as no fucker puts their shoes away (DS & DH) and there are loads of coats (mainly DH's).

I have the next week off work so was planning on a big clean up anyway.

What do I need to be doing.

I know the dog on the sofa means we need to wash the cushions more regularly than we do. I'm not as religious about cleaning as I could be.

But tell me what I need to be doing.

Can I recommend Hug Rugs? They are washable and we put them down in all the areas the cat liked to frequent. One under the litter tray as well to catch any leaks (he was old) and the main walkways. easy to bung into the machine and dry pretty quickly too.

I sympathize OP 💐 I lived in an old rental property that always had a bad smell, no matter how much I cleaned. It had a wet dog smell, even though we had no pets 🤔 and people used to comment on it.

You need to wash the coats AND shoes. IME boys trainers always smell bad, if possible buy a shoe cupboard thing, and sprinkle the inside of them with bicarb every week.

Forget about plugins/reeds/spray thingys, they just add a chemical smell on top of the bad smell. Open windows, deodorize carpets/curtains and try to get rid of the litter tray. Cat pee on clothes smells horrendous, so nip that in the bud.

I bought a spray bottle and put in about 1cm of rubbing alcohol, 15 drops each of tea tree oil and eucalyptus and then fill the bottle with water. This deodorises rather than just masking bad smells.

So sorry for the loss of your son. My ds was very ill for a number of years and I was on complete survival mode. I'm embarrassed now thinking back to the state of the house but at the time it didn't even occur to me. We hoarded terribly in those years too, it must have been some sort of coping mechanism.
If you have a good friend or family member that's willing to help you then let them. Try your best to declutter extra clothes (or anything fabricky) as these will hold onto smells.

People always over estimate how much litter to use. If you use the wood chip and only a handful you can clean it out as soon as they use it. That way there’s no old litter us the wood chip absorbs the smells. It’s also super cheap.

Dog spray-on shampoo

Air freshener diffuser sticks

Air freshening spray

Scoop cat poop daily (i use biodegradable dog poop and scoop bags)

Change litter frequently

Fabric freshening spray eg Astonish - clothes, footwear, sofas etc

Sweep/hoover entire home at least every other day - I find the build-up of cat/dog fur and dander creates odour

Cat wee reeks when it's been sitting overnight. My cats are raw-fed and you're right the poo smells like nothing but no matter what they're eating, the urine clumps need to be scooped twice a day and the whole litterbox emptied at least once a week.

And if the cat is weeing on clothes (and who knows where else) I'm not surprised there's a smell in the house.

OP do you have the budget for a professional clean? Hopefully you can blast through the house before they come and bin all the hoarded crap as well as wash the dog. I feel for you that it's been such a hard time, hopefully a good spring clean will help you feel a little more in control of things.

Edit: shit, sorry, just had an extra 500 comments loaded and now realise I'm way behind in the thread!

We recently bought an automatic cleaning litterbox and I think it’s brilliant (Petlux). Worth saving for. How to get rid of the dog smell, I don’t know. It’s hard to get mask that one.

Must’ve been a slap to hear your house is smelly. I feel for you.

We have dogs and I work a lot of hours. A few things that help here are a Eufy x8 robot hoover, Hik9 mesh beds and keeping the dogs off the sofas, the hoover goes straight under the beds keeping on top of the hair etc and they have no soft furnishings to hold the smell

I hate our litter trays, really embarrassed by them :( I have a plug in air freshener so I always make sure it’s plugged in when expecting people over.

i used to have cats and its deffinatly the most likely cause of an offensive smell tbh. we have rabbits and they sleep on blankets and sometimes their pen gets smelly. we just got a dog.... not sure if our house smells of dog now but i wash my dog regularly and plan to buy her the dog purfume she is used to and use that between washing... then beyond that if the smell of my dog offends people then they can just bugger off home because she is more important to me than them.... only had her for a few weeks aswell 😂

i wanted to reply to OP to say a few things. Ok so when I was a kid at secondary school I used to get severely teased by so-called friends who had been to my house and they made seriously hurtful comments about my home in front of lots of other classmates. It affected me negatively and made me really upset and embarrassed.
As an adult now though I realise that those “friends” simply came from very different houses to mine. I grew up in a Victorian house whereas they all lived in more modern homes. Their parents were different to mine. I realise now that I grew up in a clean (albeit extremely cluttered!) home which was filled with creativity and fun and love. I realise that my home seemed weird or untidy to those people. But to me it was just home. My parents often started projects that didn’t get fully finished or collections of books and things would get huge. So yes it was cluttered. And people made comments. But I realise now that kids simply make rude comments when it’s just that something is different to what they’re used to.
Another thing I want to say - I personally HATE febreeze / air fresheners / glade / etc !! Synthetic perfumes and chemicals in a house smell awful in my opinion. And the thought of breathing in all those chemicals in my home for myself and my children is unbearable frankly. Opening windows works wonders! Fresh air is amazing for all sorts of things!!
some people on here seem to love all the synthetic artificial air freshener things though - so just goes to show we are all different. :)

Get a strong fabric conditioner. Wash all your clothes in them including coats, blankets reguarly it will keep the house smelling fresh.
Open windows for 10 minutes a day 2 times to air out house and on sunny days keep them ajar.
Have a clear out ? Anything you're not using?
Spray carpets/floors with a scented antibac spray and vaccum over it everytime the floors need cleaning.
Pop on some fresh smelling candles or diffusers around the home. The entrance/bathrooms.
I can't advice on pets as I have none and have no idea what they smell like as most people I know don't have pets.

Good luck.

Love the self-delusion of people on here saying their house full of cats doesn’t smell.

Wash all pet bedding and soft furnishings in biological washing powder and a capful of bleach. This will kill off the bacteria that creates the bad odour.

My point is that if you want your house to stop smelling, you get rid of pets or you accept that your house will smell no matter what you do. Its part of having pets.

I second what others say about cats and always being able to smell them. I can always tell. It doesn't matter how much you clean.

Sorry, but thats just one of the downsides of having cats and dogs unfortunately.

The Iitter trays shouId be cIeaned at Ieast daiIy. Mine is, and I am frequentIy toId, "I'd never have known you have a cat if I did not see her." Get a good, scoopabIe Iitter with exceIIent cIumping abiIity and odor controI, and, as I said, scoop at Ieast daiIy.

Pets stink. There’s no way around that 🤮 if your son’s friend is from a pet free house then they will always pick up on a pet smell. I’ve never understood the desire for pets but appreciate that others do. As a non pet person I can smell anything a mile off 🤮 no matter what you do, a pet smell will always linger. It’s not your families’ shoes and coats at all. A house with cats plus dogs will always stink. Sorry, but that’s the truth 🫣😬

To be honest I would tell the DS friends (and parents if they don’t know) to take a hike … it’s rude - my son once had a friend ask why our house was so messy - he didn’t get invited again - I was barely coping with life at this point, kids/parents need to know that not everyone lives in the same hygiene/clutter free bubble and that’s ok - his Mum was mortified he had said this

as long as you are maintaining the basic essentials - changing litter, washing covers etc - all good

I imagine it's the litter trays - although dogs can be stinky as well!

I looked after a friend's cats while they were on holiday, and they have litter trays indoors as one cat is elderly. I expected them to smell awful but they really didn't. She uses 'clumping' cat litter and only changes the whole lot every so often - maybe weekly or longer?

I've only ever used the white gritty stuff and had to change it all the time, but this stuff is amazing. It clumps any wee into a blob which you can scoop out (along with poos) and what is left is clean and doesn't smell.

We scooped the trays twice a day, and after a week it still didn't smell. Might be worth looking into?

(Although a catflap option would be better again.........hopefully your cats are allowed out during the day?)

Me too! And I have a dog! Her beds, towels, toys are washed every week- 2 loads just for her!
i wash my rugs regularly - did them this weekend.
its a lot to stay on top off OP but I love my dog and I really need my home to smell clean and look tidy.

Good luck with your cleaning!

I have a friend with cats and dogs. The dogs don’t smell but the cat litter box does and the cats wee on the floor and she’s doesn’t keep the litter tray empty. Her house smells so bad. I’d never tell her.
When I had kittens I’d empty the litter tray every single time they used it. It was also right next to the back door and certainly not upstairs. Maybe in your bathroom might be a good place OP.
Cats go outside now.
I know my dog smells even after he’s been bathed as dogs coats are quite oily. Dog isn’t allowed on furniture and I cover his bed with a quick dry blanket and wash that regularly. Also have diffusers dotted about the house and windows open when it’s warm enough. I know my house smells of dog and I hate it

If your cats are weeing on your kids clothes you won’t get that smell out. Car is also probably weeing on the carpets.
I start with the litter try to be honest

Get rid of the cat litter trays, having an animal shit in the house is going to make it stink.

And possibly wash the dog more.

Steo one: wash the dog weekly.

How often does he get washed? Fabrics in the house and the general air won't smell so bad if the dog is washed.

Ditto, basic hygiene with the litter trays for the cats.

It's almost certainly the cat spraying where it shouldn't.
Tip
Big thing is people who live with a certain smell get used to it.....so ask a friend to do be a sniff tester. (Weed smokers never think they smell of weed - pet hate as I walk through town 👀🙄)

If you don't want a smelly home, don't have cats or dogs. They all smell. Some people might not notice, or have gotten used to it, but many of us can smell a dog/cat home the moment you open the door.