Removing pet stains and odors

A couple years ago, my wife and I had a fourteen-year-old dog that, like any fourteen-year-old dog would, began messing up our apartment. (We'd litter-box trained her, but she couldn't make it there in time.) Despite our best efforts to clean up after her, our apartment acquired a constant nauseating odor. By luck, we ran into a guy at the dog park who told us about a liquid spray that uses live bacteria and enzymes to break down biological waste embedded in carpets. (The bacteria are nonpathogenic.) The product is called Simple Solution:

Eager to try anything at that point, we ordered some online. And, it turned out that this stuff actually worked. (Some pet supply stores sell this stuff, too, but it's cheaper to buy it from amazon.com.) In fact, we've found that it removes just about any biological stain or odor: vomit, blood, food, etc. Within an afternoon, our apartment was livable again.

Now that we have a baby, this stuff is life-saving. We've managed to keep our clothes from acquiring that permanent baby spit-up smell. (This stuff can be mixed in with dirty laundry.) We've also had luck using it as detergent for steam cleaners.

There are several competing products that work on the same or similar principles, like Nature's Miracle. We've tried them all, but Simple Solution is the only one that kills the odor and removes the stain completely after just one good spraying.

One additional trick we discovered was to use ultra-violet black light (any UV black light should work) to spot the stains generating odors that we could no longer see.

The UV light recently came in handy again when we moved into our new home. Just be forewarned: the first time you flip on the UV black light might be a little disturbing.

If you have pet allergies problem, I also wrote up my experience dealing with mold and allergy problems.