Cat peed in laundry. What do I do to get it to smell right again?

nunnc84

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Ok. My cat / or cats are perplexed with a litter box move. I have to be careful how I put this, or I'll get hateful misunderstood judgmental remarks that I will report.
Here goes, I put the boxes behind the basement door. It's a small house, they have 24/4 access with a cat door.. No explanation needed.
Now, one of them; probley the kitten (10 mo old) is pooping and peeing upstairs in laundry basket or the towel on the bathroom floor..etc...
I show them the litter boxes downstairs again.
Now I put my laundry with cat pee in the washer with detergent. My whole load smells like cat pee and poo. I took out all the poo in the pile before washing, and added shout spray.
Do I have to bleach everything?
If they would have taken to toilet training, this would not be an issue..
 

rubysmama

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To ensure the urine/feces scent is completely removed, you probably should use an enzyme cleaner.

Here's a TCS article that might be helpful: How To Get Cat Pee Smell Out Of Clothes And Linens

As for the new location of the litter box, can you put it back to where it was, and then slowly move it to the new location. That way, the kitten in particular, might not be struggling with finding it.
 

Willowy

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I have a little experience with peed-on laundry, lol. First, divide it into smaller loads. If there's too much in there the pee doesn't get spun out and just stays. Then wash it normally, add a little vinegar. Then wash it again (with all the usual detergent, etc.), preferably in hot water if the fabric can take it, warm water if it can't. Usually that works. The first wash spins the pee out, the second wash gets it clean.

If not, they sell Febreze for laundry now, it works pretty well.

Is the 10-month-old neutered yet? It could be that he's maturing and trying to mark his territory.

If they really insist on having a litterbox upstairs, it's a lot less smelly to have a litterbox than peed-on laundry :).
 

lucicat

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I would just put a litter box in the laundry room.
I have a group of fosters that are that age and when I first got them a couple weeks ago they were peeing everywhere. I put a little box every place the peed or totally blocked that spot off. Basicaly forcing them to pee in the boxes. There were four boxes for three kittens in a small room! But it worked, they started peeing in the boxes more and the floor less. Now they only pee in the boxes and I have gone down to two boxes.
 
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nunnc84

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alright. the kitten was confused. it took a bit to get her litter box trained in the first place. now that I moved the boxes, she was confused. Now that she is using the boxes in the new place all is good. The laundry turned out fine! Thank you #Rubysmama
 
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nunnc84

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thank s for the article I found I have everything i need ed. i.e. the angry orange stuff that made the laundry new again
 

rubysmama

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Glad to hear things are working out, with both the litter box and laundry. 🤗
 
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