To remove cat urine (and odor) from carpet using cheap ingredients: If fresh urine soak up as much as possible with paper towels first and if an older area, that is still odorous, do the following: 1. If you can replace the carpet pad under the affected area than cut away a square of the pad that is soaked and discard. Make sure you have a piece of new pad. If not, then clean the pad underneath as well, as follows: 2. Soak area completely with white vinegar (carpet and pad if not replacing pad). Let it sit for 20 minutes or so and then soak up as much as possible with paper towels. Allow to dry - use a fan to speed up the process if desired. 2. After this dries, apply a liberal amount of baking soda over the affected area and drizzle with a quarter cup of hydrogen peroxide mixed with a teaspoon of Dawn dishwashing liquid. Use as much of the mixture as necessary depending on the size of the cleanup. Work it in with a scrub brush or your fingers (wearing rubber gloves) to disolve the baking soda. Work it deep into the fibers and old pad (if keeping). Allow to dry and then vacuum it up. Repeat the process if a really old nasty stain with odor. Here's how it works: The acidic vinegar neutralizes the ammonia in the urine and hydrogen peroxide is a powerful oxidizer which kills the bacteria that causes the odor. Baking soda also absorbs odor and the Dawn cleans the area of dirt and more odors. Using water and rug shampoo to clean urine does not remove it and at first you think it is working but then it starts smelling again. That is because the bacteria is still working and the ammonia has not been neutralized. I've used this on cat urine stains in two places in my home (an older cat started going in these two spots) and it has worked very well at a fraction of the cost of those odor removal kits that cost $50 and up. I highly recommend you can buy some scrap carpet padding and cut away the old and replace with a new patch of padding (if feasible). It will greatly save time and work much better as the pad is harder to get all the fibers clean deep down unlike the carpet itself which has a more open weave.

I love #6. I'll get out my handcuffs and polish them right up. Thanks Minnie. There are some good hints in there, as well as some funny ones. Leslie

Calcium will leave a ring, I use a acrylic cleaner, and then I use a spa gloss polish before I refill ours. I'm sure they told you, it gets drained and cleaned quartlerly. ( since I am cheap), our tub has filters/ When I drain the pool, I take the filter to the car wash, put my foot on top to hold it down and blast it with the high pressure soap cycle and high pressure rinse cycle. It really beats the soaping in TSP. Be sure you also use a cover conditioner and clean the cover while you are at it! Kathy

My stove is a Maytag double oven (I think it is called 'Gemini'. It is three years old and I use it daily. Yes, the grates are caste iron -- can't imagine what 'painted' means. The dishwasher is useless unless you put them in there daily and who does that? I will tell you that before I found the great ammonia hint, I ordered black grates and with shipping, it was $100. That was worth it to me because the ammonia method takes a over-night process and I now have a second set.