May 2018

May 2018

Friday, March 17, 2017

Basement Cleaning and Purging

The day after Rupert's passing, hubby started tackling the basement. In his final weeks, Rupert rarely used the litter box. No matter that hubby cleaned the concrete floor in the unfinished area daily, and shampooed the carpet in the finished area almost every weekend, there was always a smell.

The first step to improving the situation was to remove the carpet tiles. That's when hubby discovered Rupert's numerous accidents hidden by the shaggy pile. If you've ever had a cat, you know the smell of cat urine is nearly impossible to get rid of. Thankfully, as soon as the tiles were tossed the smell was gone.

This weekend hubby will remove the sticky residue left from the carpet tiles and paint the floor with an odor-eliminator sealer. I ordered carpet tile samples that should arrive early next week. Hopefully we'll find something we like and be able to place an order for delivery the following week.

In the meantime, I've been purging and cleaning every inch of the basement, including the storage room. The timing is perfect because our daughter's annual MS Garage Sale is April 15 and our donation pile is growing nicely. It's interesting how things I couldn't part with last year I'm having no problem getting rid of this year. I'm feeling a strong need for change and an urge to move forward.

When we're finished, the basement will be clean and clutter free. And, although we miss Rupert terribly, we'll be glad to have that space again.


1 comment:

Rita said...

Poor Rupert! I didn't have the urine problem here with Miss Karma, but I am still finding tiny blood splatter on walls and furniture where Karma shook her head with the tube in her ear. When Dagan came to help it was an amazing amount of scrubbing and hauling out of cat stuff. I was cleaning and washing stuff for two days.

With Rupert gone, even though you'll miss him, you will now have an entire level of your house you can use again...and do cat pee smell! I guess that's the silver lining. :)