Tips on Selling Your House When You Have a Smelly Cat

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Realtors recommend that homeowners stage their houses when they are on the market, and this often includes plugging in something that makes a house smell like a home so that is exactly where potential buyer’s thoughts go when they walk through the front door. Something that definitely does not smell like home, though, is a cat. Cats are amazing, and many people love them. The people that come to look at your home might love them, too, but they aren’t going to remember your home in a positive light if your house smells more like cat and less like anything that isn’t cat.

It’s not always easy to make your home as ‘show-able’ as possible with a cat in the house, but you have to what you have to do. If you’re not sure how to get the smell of cat out of your home before it’s time to show it off to potential buyers, allow us to make a few suggestions that might just help you improve the scent of your home despite the presence of your stinky cat. Realtors are very open about what makes a house sell, and the presence of a pet is often something that turns buyers off. In fact, a cluttered house filled with animals is one of the features that will turn a buyer off before they even make it through the front door. Don’t let your cat cause your house to sit on the market any longer than necessary.

Call in the professionals

Even homes in which an animal has been gone for a while might smell like a home with a pet. You see, cats just leave their smell behind in many of the different areas of the house, including cloth furniture, rugs and carpets. Now is the time to get the professionals into the house to do a thorough cleaning of your carpets and rugs – as well as your cloth furniture, so that they can reduce the smell of cats on and in those items. You might be surprised what a huge difference in makes.

Clean it up

Now that the floors and rugs are cleaned, it’s time to clean everything else. This means cleaning your sheets, duvets, pillows and even your bath mats and shower curtains. No, you are not leaving those behind for a new owner, but they might still contain the smell of your cat and they can make the house smell like that, too. Get them washed so that they smell fresh and a lot less like a cat.

Replace carpet and padding on which animals have urinated

All it takes is once; one time a dog or a cat might urinate on your floor and that’s it. Your house will smell forever. You cannot get rid of that scent. It just lingers in there since it happens to get inside the padding and make itself at home in the floor. If you want to eliminate the smell of a cat in your home, you’re going to have to replace the carpet and padding where your cat has urinated. It’s the only way to get rid of the smell forever. The same goes for any rugs on which the animal has used the bathroom.

Clean the litter box daily

Litter boxes smell, and they should be cleaned daily regardless. Unfortunately, many people forget to do this on a daily basis and things begin to smell. It can make a huge impact when the box is cleaned daily, but it might not be enough. You should also keep the room in which the litter box is kept open and airy so that the smell doesn’t become overwhelming. If you have a window in that room, keep it open. If you have a fan in that room, turn it on. Keep the room from becoming stale to prevent the smell from becoming overwhelming.

Move the litter box

It’s actually a good idea in general to take a litter box out of the home if you have a cat and you’re trying to sell. Keep it somewhere outside the main living area of the home, such as in the garage or somewhere that your cat is still save but that the smell of the litter doesn’t make the rest of the house smell.

Move the cat out

It’s not something that many people are willing to do, but sometimes this is the best option all the way around. For starters, cats are not always people-friendly, and this means that your cat might become scared or frightened when strangers are in the house. If even one person leaves a door open for a second longer than necessary, your cat might run out and become lost. It might be safer for your cat not to even be present in this situation.

Additionally, moving the cat out of the house is a good way for you to ensure that the cat is not making things smell once they’ve been cleaned and freshened. It could help your home sell faster. Realtors say that some buyers are so specific about what they want that they will ask their agents not to even bother showing them homes in which a cat or dog lives, so this might help you in this aspect, too.

Clean the Blinds

Here is something that most homeowners and cat owners forget to clean. Cats love to look outside, which means that they spend a great deal of their time near windows. Many cats like to sit on the actual window sill, which means that they probably spend time shedding up there as well as on your wooden blinds. It’s important to remember to clean these so that you can ensure there is no cat hair or dander there.

Not only does this make the house smell, it also looks dirty and can cause potential buyers to turn around, walk out and never think twice about your home again. We all know that is not what you want when your house is on the market.

Photo by Getty Images

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