Cleaning & Organizing
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Blek! Kind of gross sorry

So I have a bad cold and am super stuffed up, but I opened up my linen closet yesterday (we also keep the cat litter in there) and something smelled off. Dead. When H got home I asked him to check it out and sure enough there was a dead mouse in the cat litter bag. He took it out and flung the body into the woods.

Today I'm feeling a bit better and can kind of smell things normally and HOLY HELL does everything in that closet reek. The smell permeated all of the towels and blankets in there along with the cat litter itself. I'm throwing everything in the wash with extra detergent but does anyone know how to get this dead smell out of the carpet and door? The whole upstairs smells awful and I don't know what to do. Cover it up with something that smells better and hope it goes away? Any suggestions?!

Re: Blek! Kind of gross sorry

  • Dead mouse smell will go away on its own in a few weeks...I learned this from experience of having a few in our basement. Yuck!!  In the meantime - try activated charcoal or baking soda in a shallow bowl to absorb the smell.  You can also try sprinkling baking soda on the carpet, waiting a few hours/overnight and vacuuming.  Cleaning the carpet, washing the walls and making sure everything in the closet is washed may also help.  GL!
  • This plan is time consuming but works.

    Empty the entire closet.  

    Put everything washable into a wash cycle with 1/2 cup white vinegar per wash cycle. 

    Wipe everything non washable down with a solution of equal parts white vinegar and hot water. 

    Wipe down walls, ceilings, rods, and shelves down with vinegar solution.  

    Place a saucer of baking soda on each shelf of the closet.

    Test vinegar solution on carpet.  If it does not bleed the carpet, saturate carpet with vinegar solution, close door so that only the saucers of baking soda and vinegar soaked carpet are inside the door.  

    Let sit for 48 hours straight.

    After 48 hours, remove saucers of baking soda and flush contents down the toilet. Wash saucers in hot water.   Using a vacuum with an empty bag, vacuum closet. 

    Dead animal smell permeates everything.  Vinegar and Baking soda are natural deodorizers that are relatively cheap.   

     Good Luck  

  • Sam's Club has a gallon of concentrated cleaning liquid called ODO-BAN. It smells really good, like eucalyptas. I would use it straight and not dilute it. You can alson put it in the launfry. And I whould hang all the towels outside in the sun. I hope this works!
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