Rear view of male in jeans and t-shirt using his hands to cover his buttocks. A text overlay reads "How to clean poop stains"

Steps to make clean poop stains, kill germs, and eliminate odors on various household surfaces and fabrics.

A man in a blue shirt and jeans holds his hands over his bottom to hide a poop stain

At some point in everyone'due south life, we're going to discover ourselves wondering how to clean poop. Maybe you have a pet or two. Possibly your kid isn't communicable on to potty training merely yet. Possibly you or a family member caught a horrible stomach virus. Whatsoever the reason, accidents happen.

How Germy is Poop?

Information technology'southward instinctive to feel grossed out when we run across or odor poop. Almost of u.s.a. also respond by wanting to scrub and sanitize the surface right away, also. And that'south a expert thing, for many reasons.

Poop Can Be Dangerous

Dog poop can contain various parasites that are dangerous to humans, including hookworm, tapeworm, roundworm (okay, a ton of unlike kinds of worms), along with giardia and coccidia.

While cat lovers may consider their pets cleaner, feline poop is more than dangerous. Not only can cat feces contain the same huge diversity of worms, only also Toxoplasma gondii, or T. gondii, which is linked to mental illness. (That's enough to scare the poop out of simply most every cat owner!)

Other people'southward poop is incredibly dangerous, too. The bacteria in human poop is easily transferred to 1's easily while cleaning, which inevitably leads to what's known as oral-fecal contamination. Eww, right?

Merely Your Poop Is Fine.

In improver to convincing yourself that your poop doesn't stink, you may likewise rest assured your poop probably won't make you lot sick. In fact, some experts — yep, at that place are experts about poop — say that ingesting your own poop might actually be healthy. (I think I'll pass on that one — no pun intended.)

Merely, unless you live solitary and never accept anyone over, touch anything, or get anywhere, you should nevertheless clean up your own poop ASAP, considering ew.

How to Get Poop Out of Diapers and Clothes

Equipment:

  • Cleaning gloves
  • Two disposable plastic bags
  • Cleaning cloths or paper towels
  • A laundry stain remover containing enzymes* (I use Zout)
  • Your regular laundry detergent
  • Chlorine bleach or white vinegar

* Enzymes are proteins that dissolve the bonds between the poop and fabric. In addition to cleaning, they'll aid remove the stain, too.

Step 1: Scrape or Rinse

Heat can brand poop stains permanent, so you lot demand to work with only cold water at this betoken. Put your gloves on and bear the item to the bathroom. Dump as much of the crud into the toilet as you can, flushing as needed. For small items, hang onto a corner of them while flushing several times to wash abroad every bit much of the mess as possible. Rinse larger items in a bathtub.

Step 2: Apply Enzyme Cleaner

Yous can do this in the toilet or tub. Be sure to disinfect afterward. Add roughly 2 tablespoons of the enzyme-containing treatment to the toilet bowl or i/ii cup to a tub containing a couple of inches of cold water. Let the item soak for thirty minutes. Flush or bleed, then squeeze out excess h2o.

Pace 3: Launder and Dry

Now that you lot've treated the stain, it's time to disinfect it. Wash the item in hot water with a hot rinse using either 3/four cup chlorine bleach or 2 cups white vinegar and your regular laundry detergent. If you don't have a washing machine, hand launder the item in a tub or a bucket using 1/4 cup chlorine bleach or one/ii loving cup white vinegar and 1-gallon hot water. One time it's clean, dry it in either your dryer or line-dry it in the dominicus — both assistance kill germs.

How to Clean Poop from Upholstery and Rug

Equipment:

  • Cleaning gloves
  • A dispensable plastic bag
  • Something to scrape with (a newspaper plate you lot can toss works nicely)
  • White cleaning cloths or paper towels
  • A laundry handling containing enzymes (like Zout)
  • A bowl
  • Liquid dish soap
  • Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol (known equally surgical spirits in the Britain)

1. Get it Off

Put your gloves on and catch a plastic bag. Use a paper plate to scoop up as much poop as possible and dump it in the bag. Wipe abroad the residuum with a paper towel and toss it in the handbag, too. Get a few paper towels damp with common cold water and wipe, not rub, to remove more crud.

2. Launder

In a bowl, combine 1 quart of cold water with two tablespoons of a laundry handling containing enzymes. Get a white cloth or paper towel moisture and dab at the stain to remove poop and discoloration. (Don't saturate your carpet or upholstery!) The reason for using a white cloth is and then you don't transfer dyes from the fabric to your rug, and so you tin can come across when it's time to rotate your cloth, so yous're always working with a clean surface area. One time you've got all the mess up, let the expanse air-dry.

three. Disinfect

Cleaning is just the starting time step to getting poop out of carpeting or upholstery. Once it'due south gone, y'all need to disinfect the area likewise. To exercise this, dab the spot with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, which is condom on fabrics and microsuede and microfiber piece of furniture. Don't saturate the padding; wipe the surface and let it air dry. For carpeting, vacuum thoroughly to restore the nap. You may also want to shampoo your carpet, as well.

How to Clean Poop on Other Surfaces

Equipment:

Cleaning gloves
A disposable plastic bag
Something to scrape with (a paper plate works well)
Cleaning cloths or newspaper towels
Disinfecting spray or wipes

Employ a Two-Footstep Process

When information technology comes to very germy things similar poop, you need to use a ii-step cleaning process then disinfecting since besides much bacterial mess keeps disinfectants from eliminating all the germs.

So, the first stride to cleaning poop involves putting on your cleaning gloves and using paper towels to scoop upwards as much poop from the surface as you lot can. Toss the soiled materials into the plastic bag merely don't close it yet. Then, soak some more than paper towels with hot water and wipe upwardly the remaining mess. Add these to the plastic bag and dispose of the whole matter.

Then, wet the area liberally with a homemade disinfectant and let it sit for 5 minutes. If you lot're using a shop-bought disinfectant, use the fourth dimension directed on the manufacturer's characterization. Then wipe the area again with clean water and allow information technology air dry.

And in that location you have it, the total poop on how to clean poop. Remember, to avoid cantankerous-contaminating other places in your dwelling house, you lot should probably shower and alter clothes every bit soon as you lot're washed.

Where to Next?

  • How To Get Dried Paint Out Of Carpet
  • How To Clean Pet Stains
  • 54 Things Y'all Can Clean in the Dishwasher