Would You Rather Haul a $750 Sofa to the Dump or Spend $50 to Fix It?

Imagine this scenario: You spend $750 for a new sofa — not on a whim, but after saving and shopping, comparing and scrutinizing. Finally, the beautiful piece you’ve waited for arrives. The room looks better than you could have possibly imagined. Even your beloved cat seems to approve. Yes, I said cat.

Before the newness has worn off, the unthinkable happens. The cat becomes stressed (from presidential politics, no doubt) and does what many cats do under stress: He sprays the sofa more thoroughly than thought possible for a cat to spray. Argh!

Does any of this ring a bell? It was the subject of an archived post at EverdayCheapskate.com, “Some Smelly Situations Cause Extra Toil and Require Extra Patience.”

This little story is reality for Linda, who wrote for help in getting rid of the smell of cat urine on her furniture — the kind of odor that brings tears to your eyes. She’d already given Nok-Out, my favorite odor eliminator, a noble try by spraying it on the affected areas, but the smell remained.

Knowing we needed to get this right and soon, I asked Nok-Out’s owner Ted Price (1-866-551-1927) to weigh in on this painful situation. You may also recall that in that post we got a science lesson. Nok-Out, explained Ted, is an oxidizer. It neutralizes even the worst odor on contact. But it must come into contact with the source of the offending odor, not merely spray around it. Ted explained exactly how Linda should re-treat both pieces of furniture with Nok-Out to completely eliminate this offensive odor. And sure enough, within a couple of weeks, we heard back from Linda with this follow-up:

DEAR MARY AND TED: I’m happy to let you know that it worked! With Ted’s tutorial in mind, I poured another gallon of Nok-Out on the arms of the furniture, allowing it to really soak in, and then allowed it to dry over a number of days. This time, it finished the job! No more odor. Thank you. You have an awesome product! — Linda

I know what you’re thinking: An entire gallon of Nok-Out? That’s a lot of liquid! And it’s not exactly cheap. But keep this in mind: You can actually dilute Nok-Out in a 4:1 ratio (4 parts water to 1 part Nok-Out) to save money and achieve the same results. Nok-Out is quite strong when used full strength, so this dilution, according to Ted, maintains well the effectiveness of Nok-Out.

Let’s think this through. Would you haul a $750 sofa and chair to the dump because you refuse to spend $50 to fix the problem? Probably not. I know Linda wouldn’t. Attacking the odor with that much Nok-Out allowed it to soak into that upholstery and all the stuffing, too, so that it came in contact with every smidgen of what the cat deposited. That allowed the entirety of the odor to be oxidized. And since Nok-Out is as harmless as water, it did not affect the upholstery in any way. It dried just as if it’d been treated with water.

Nok-Out is nontoxic, completely safe around pets and kids, looks like water and contains no perfumes or chemicals. Yet it neutralizes one of nature’s most difficult odors, eliminating it permanently.