How to get the skunk odor out of your house.

After Ransom was nice and shiny and odor-free, I had a larger problem. Everywhere I read online stated emphatically, Do not let your dog back into the house! If you have to, lock them up in one room that is away from most of your home. 

Not only did we let him into our house; we let him sleep in our bedroom for the rest of the night. Hey, it was 4:30am and we don't trust him anywhere else.

The worst area was the sun room because the skunk practically sprayed directly into that room. I held my breath and opened all the windows to start airing it out. It figures that the one day it was perfectly calm outside with not even a breeze, was the day I was doing this. I then continued opening all the windows in the house up. Even the garage smelled.

After a couple of hours, it was bearable to enter the sun room, so I dumped baking soda all over the carpet, let it sit, then vacuumed it up. Then I dumped that air freshener powder (the entire bottle) all over the floor, let it sit, then vacuumed. Now, I had a very concentrated smell of fresh linen. Of course, Ransom was traumatized by all this vacuuming and curled up into as small of a ball as possible on the couch.

In the rest of the house, I began burning all the smelly candles I own - one in each room. Since the only place besides the sun room that Ransom actually laid down was our bedroom, I mixed a vinegar and water solution and put it in a spray bottle. Then, I sprayed that on the areas where he slept. Then, I vacuumed the rest of the house. 

The last items that really smelled were my clothes that I was wearing when he got sprayed. I put them, and anything else that was exposed to the oil, in the washer and washed as normal. They came out smelling fine, although I worry what will happen when they get dirty again - if that will bring the smell out.

I started this process at 8:30am and was done at 12:30pm. By then, it was beginning to smell like all my candles and air fresheners, so I really couldn't tell what it was like. My aunt came over to smell for me and said she didn't smell any thing gross. Hubs could still smell it a little and I could still taste it whenever I ate.

The next morning, I opened up the house again until it got too warm. We haven't smelled skunk in our house since.