Reddit mentions: The best household carpet cleaners

My cat hasn't pooped in the litterbox for several years now. Rarely he'll try starting there, but he always ends up running and scattering the poop along his path. Our best guess is that he has (had?) something painful when he poops, which spooks him and makes him run away. Maybe even litter dust? There's no blood and the vets haven't been able to find anything. He seems perfectly healthy otherwise, and he's 17, so we're just resigned to cleaning it up for the rest of his life.

We use this cleaner, which seems effective enough as long as the poop is solid. Use a wet wipe to clean off the worst of it, spray the cleaner, come back with paper towels to press it dry ~15 minutes later. That's probably easier than shampooing every time, at least.

As for potential solutions, there are a couple things that sometimes help for us. We leave a paper shopping bag on the floor for him to play with, and sometimes he'll poop in one of those instead of on the floor. I've read that some cats prefer enclosed litterboxes, but we haven't tried that. Sometimes he'll start on a towel on the floor, so there might be some preference there. Towels are much easier to clean than carpet! I've considered getting some puppy pads to try, but haven't done so yet. The pads are pretty effective for my uncle's dogs, and sometimes his cats use them instead of their litterbox. On the other hand, sometimes the cats pee on the pads and then try to "bury" it, which just crumples the pads up and sometimes makes them leak, so... be alert for that possibility.

Okay... help. I almost made an individual post, but saw the rules. I haven't detailed before, it may be a long term goal but more for insides only. But heres my situation: I have a leased car, and in a few months it goes back to the dealership. I already know I'm going to get fined for mileage and a scratch on my driver's side mirror (accidentally scraped a wall), so I'm trying to minimize the rest. The problem is this... I was finishing my schooling and that last year was rough. As a result, a lot more food accidents happened in the car than I would have liked. Primarily, there have been accidental spills of chocolate shakes, the occassional coffee (black), and of course lovely sweat stains. There's a chance of coke being somewhere in the mix.

The worst seats are the backseats, followed by the front passenger seat.

I've tried just water and a microfiber towel, no luck obviously. I tried something like https://www.amazon.com/Bissell-14Q7-Foaming-Upholstery-12-Ounce/dp/B0052EEE92/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539720315&sr=8-1&keywords=bissel+pet+brush (it's a different formula, but from bissell for carpets/upholstry) and it was like $8 from the grocery story. It removed coffee stains from the top of the car (whoops), but for the seats? maybe it helped like 2%, but not much. This stuff foamed up then you let it set, and it's supposed to help. Based on reading here, I'm guessing its due to me not cleaning it up after.

I live in an apartment complex without garages, so I don't have the space to rent one of those cleaners from the store (I saw some portable ones, but I just can't get it to an outlet and the car). I know a wet vac would probably be ideal, but the distance is an issue along with money. I know I could just get it detailed, but I'm hoping to learn how to do this so i understand more how to fix it, and how to resolve it in the future if it happens again.

I have a limited budget currently. I have one of those kiwi brushes (from dealing with shoes), and a bunch of microfiber towels (thank you costco).

What do I do to clean this? I'm thinking based on research in this threat maybe Folex and microfiber towels? Would this work?

EDIT: It's a Toyota Corolla with cloth seats. If a wet vac is how I need to go, are there any good handheld ones that aren't super expesnive?

Hey, what do you think of something like Traffic Slam or Newline for a "pro" pre-spray, if I mix it up in a pump sprayer and then extract it using my Hoover steamvac? Just reading some comments over on truckmountforums and a lot of the guys seemed to recommend these (and Bio Break and Enzall powder mixes).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BTHPMQH/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H4WTLXB/

Good idea? Bad idea?

Otherwise, these were some of the more "pedestrian" products I was looking at possibly getting. If one of these will get me much better results, then I'll do it.

Hoover Expert Clean https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D20IREU

Stain-X https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008LYBWC2

Bubbas carpet shampoo, maybe boosted with their enzyme product https://www.amazon.com/Bubbas-Cleaner-SHAMPOO-Solution-Upholstery/dp/B00JT4VP3Y/

I guess, I'm trying to get semi-pro results with pretty low end equipment lol. My idea is to pre-spray, maybe agitate with a carpet rake, let dwell for 10 minutes, use my machine to extract, then rinse/final extract. I think with enough passes I can extract enough to get good results with enough effort. Definitely not pro level, but better than good enough.

Griot's Garage products have served me well. I use their Interior Cleaner and Leather Care Spray. Links are below.

Leather Care Spray: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00469KZY2/

Interior Cleaner: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IUE5S7I/

Once a month or so, I use the Interior Cleaner on EVERYTHING, then follow up with the Leather Care Spray on the steering wheel, shift knob, and seats.

I second this. Also, if you know anyone with one of those bissell little green machines, those are pretty amazing for cleaning cars, furniture, and area rugs. I love mine.

https://www.amazon.com/Bissell-Little-Cleaning-Machine-1400M/dp/B00MFRELFG

Cloth seats? I have this problem with my 2010 Escape, every little thing stains these darn seats (it's a common issue with these cars, I had an 08 with the same fabric and the same problem), and the thing that worked the best was this thing: https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Coral-DC22-Upholstery-Eliminator/dp/B0009IR0PQ I tried the Oxi-Clean brand and the Turtle Wax one too and neither of them worked well like this one.

If it's leather, IDK...

You should be able to brush it, then vacuum, then use some sort of upholstery cleaner like [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Valspar-Guardsman-321500-Furniture-Upholstery/dp/B0057FE8T2). I've also heard of diluting laundry soap and giving it a scrub. Good luck.

Not sure if available in Australia, but this is the best product I’ve found for carpet stains. Chem-Dry Carpet Stain Extinguisher - 18 oz. - 3 Pack https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XDP4ZQL/

Hm, I haven't had much dirt to deal with, nothing that a vacuum didn't cover. I would try a cloth, blot that shit don't rub it. If that doesn't work, the people at golfmk6.com (there is a golfmk7.com as well) swear by this stuff. That site is often better than this one for answering random questions. The search function is awful though, so use google, "site:golfmk7.com fabric cleaner" or something like that.

Scotch guard does make an auto stain remover as well and honestly any fabric cleaner is probably fine, just don't go overboard until you know it isn't leaving a mark.

I use a rake in conjunction with the vacuum to prolong the life of them. https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Rake-Carpet-Hair-Remover/dp/B0002ZFNN2/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1526448947&sr=8-15&keywords=carpet+rake

i'll go and do about 1/2 of a room before it needs to be cleaned, just grab it with your hand, then finish raking the room. doing that leaves a lot less work for the vacuum and i feel like i end up with a much more thorough result.

This detergent comes with a free brush. It seems to be only for pets who live in cars, though.

Resolve removes blood from carpet I don't know if it can be used on clothes without ruining them.

https://www.amazon.com/Resolve-Carpet-Remover-Bottle-Cleaner/dp/B00IB18S2C

Buy or rent one of these and have a few rounds at the carpets

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00SHWNRBM?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

It should remove all the smells and clean em up

Apparently it's a heated portable carpet extractor...

http://www.amazon.com/Xaact-X-100HSS-Portable-Extractor-Capacity/dp/B008RO6YX8

http://www.amazon.com/Woolite-Carpet-Cleaner-Powerful-Cleaners/dp/B001B1HNZW/ref=pd_sim_k_4

http://www.amazon.com/Muscle-DVO991209-Boil-Out-Packet-Carton/dp/B01B7FHL12


http://www.amazon.com/Ecolab-Orange-Cleaner-Degreaser-Gallon/dp/B00FIUBEMA

This is what we use.. What products do you?

I vacuum and then lightly spray this mothers stuff, and microfiber it off. xpost this to /r/AutoDetailing

If it's cloth this stuff (Blue Coral Upholstery Cleaner) is amazing. I used it in my old car a few times, not for sex stains, but still.

Edit: forgot to mention, don't use the cap scrubber. It just fucks things up. Just use a washcloth to do the actual scrubbing.

I used this to clean the salt stains in my car. Just spray some on the stain, let soak for a few minutes and agitate with a scrub brush. Finally, suck it up with a wetvac and let dry.

Use an enzymatic cleaner. Spray on, leave it on for 5 minutes so the enzymes can do their work to break down the urine (make sure the surface stays wet, so respray if necessary) then wipe up. It smells nice on its own, but it actually destroys the odor.

There's something you can get called "enzyme cleaner". It's used to destroy cat urine smells. It's not like a perfume. It contains enzymes and bacteria that actually digest the urine(and other bodily liquids) and give off gas.

I would recommend getting some enzyme cleaner. You can buy a gallon at most pet supply stores, but it's generally much cheaper to get it at janitorial supply stores. Or you can get it on Amazon for about $20 per gallon.

When applying it to anything that smells bad, don't dilute or spray. Soak thoroughly for at least 15 minutes to half an hour. Then wash.