Merry Pet Mess: How to Protect Your Home from Pets During the Holidays

Happy holidays, pawrents! As the holidays descend upon us, you’re probably either welcoming people into your home or traveling, and you may have a few furry friends along for the ride.

We know from experience that pets and the holidays can lead to some…unique challenges. Whether your pet is traveling with you, attending a gathering in your home, or just coexisting with your Christmas decorations all of December, there are bound to be some holiday pet mishaps.

So, how can you keep your pets from causing long-term damage inside a home this holiday season? While we can’t make any promises, we polled the entire corporate office to learn about their pets’ holiday-related messes and came up with our best tips for cleaning up after these common issues.  

Keep scrolling to learn about the messes, get tips, and see holiday pics of our Steemer pets! (Spoiler alert: the holiday pictures are pretty cute)

Our Tips for Cleaning Up Pet Messes

Pet Mess #1: My dog tracks snow and slush into my home via its paws. 

Solution: After being outside, wipe doggy paws and belly with a towel. If snow or slush gets on the carpet or rug, blot with a white towel to soak up excess liquid and use Stanley Steemer spot cleaner. We’ll take care of the rest when it’s time for your regular professional carpet cleaning. 

Side note: if your carpet cleaning is due soon, you can schedule online via the quote tool or call us at 1-800-STEEMER to schedule today!

Pet Mess #2: My cat jumps in the tree and rips the garland off, sending tinsel and needles flying everywhere.

Solution: As you’ll see below, we have yet to find a way to stop our own cats from doing this, but to clean up the mess, use a vacuum or broom to collect garland shards and tree needles. This will prevent the shards from getting smashed into a rug or carpet and causing discoloration. 

Pet Mess #3: My pet knocks ornaments off the tree and breaks them.

Solution: Use a vacuum or a broom to capture all the little pieces and make sure nothing will cut your feet or your pet's. We recommend using a microfiber broom for hardwood or LVT/LVP to avoid scratching the surface of your floor, but a vacuum will be most effective for carpet or a rug.

Pet Mess #4: My dog rips into the tissue paper in bagged gifts, which then bleeds color into rugs and carpets.

Solution: Use Stanley Steemer spot remover to clear the color bleeding from your rug or carpet. If a spot cleaner doesn’t work, call us at 1-800-STEEMER or go online to schedule a professional rug or carpet cleaning. 

Pet Mess #5: We have a real Christmas tree, and our dog peed on it, confused by the outdoors coming inside. 

Solution: First, keep a very close eye on your dog when you first bring the tree into the house, specifically watching for the dog to sniff the tree trunk. This is a signal your dog might be considering peeing on the tree.

If you miss the chance to keep this from happening, Stanley Steemer Spot Remover and Odor Out! can help clean up afterward. That said, you definitely want to start by blotting up excess liquid with a white towel before applying a spot remover or deodorizer, even if it isn’t ours. 

Depending on how many times this happened and how early on you spot-cleaned, you might want to consider scheduling a professional cleaning sooner rather than later. This is especially true if there’s a lingering odor or stain that your retail products aren’t able to keep at bay. You can schedule online via the quote tool or by calling 1-800-STEEMER.

Pet Mess #6: My family feeds my dog table scraps, and sometimes, food is dropped on the floor. My dog also then takes the food elsewhere in the house to eat it, creating a mess away from the table. 

Solution: If you’re working with carpet, upholstery, or a rug, use Stanley Steemer spot remover + odor out! to take on surface-level bacteria. For tile and grout, hardwood, or LVP/LVT, you can usually clean the mess on a surface level with a quick swipe of a wet paper towel, but use our retail cleaners for each floor type if you run into a stubborn stain. 

Regardless of floor type, bacteria is likely to fester below the surface of the floor, so be sure to stick to your professional cleaning cadence to reduce these contaminants and preserve the longevity of the surface. 

You can schedule these services online via our quote tool, or give us a ring at 1-800-STEEMER.

Owner: Brooke H, Marketing Department

Otis’s Holiday Messes: “He steps in slush after the snow has melted and brings all the dirt and grime into the house. It gets on the hardwood floors and carpets! Even the upholstery. He also makes a mess when the family tries to feed him table scraps under the table, especially when he takes to a secondary location.”

Owner: Annie B, Marketing Department

Dozer’s Holiday Messes: “Dozer loves tissue paper. Any gift around the tree with tissue paper seems to be something he wants to open, even if it isn't his.  Little pieces of tissue paper with dog slobber are always fun to deal with on our rugs. There have been times when the colored tissue paper leaves a colored mark on the rug, but our Stanley Steemer Spot Remover gets it out every time.”

Owner: Nissa S, Accounting Department

Duffy’s Holiday Messes: “I tried to put up my artificial tree, and Duffy went bonkers.  Excitedly jumping and climbing on it, knocking it over. I ultimately decided not to put up a tree.”  

Rayne- Orange Cat

Owner: Megan R, Marketing Department

Rayne’s Holiday Messes: "My Rayne loves to chew anything and everything! She'll chew the garland I hang up on the mantel, any decoration that she's able to get to, and loves a nicely wrapped gift. I usually have to store all our gifts in the front closet until the day of, or else she would literally chew through every gift/tear up all the tissue paper. She also loves to explore the decorated tree and thinks the ornaments are her own personal toys! She is quite the handful, but we love her!”

Lilah—Border Collie

Owner: Callia K, Marketing Department

Lilah’s Holiday Messes: “Lilah is (and was bred to be) a workaholic who never takes a day off, which means she demands to go work in the park no matter the weather. She may not have sheep to herd, but she’s made do with herding her frisbee and chasing it down at speeds so fast she kicks up a cloud of dust behind her in the summer. In the winter, this results in her stomach and legs being covered in mud, slush, and dirty water from the park. While visiting family for the holidays, she also created a mess by knocking ornaments off the Christmas tree while attempting to herd the 15-year-old family dachshund, Cookie (pictured below).”

Owner: Mackenzie C, HR

Ichi’s Holiday Messes: “Ichi loves to chew on the tree branches and take down all the ornaments.”

Fritz—Aussiedoodle 

Owner: Brin H, Dispatch

Fritz’s Holiday Messes: “Fritz brings in snow, grass, leaves, and dirt when coming in from outside. When it snows, we have to whisk his fur to remove the snowballs attached to him. Then we have a towel next to the door so we can get him as dry as possible.”

Lila—Mixed Breed

Owner: Madison H, Marketing

Lila’s Holiday Messes: “She definitely brings in mud on the rugs once it starts to snow/rain.”

Dawson- Shepherd/Chow Mix

Owner: Nick H, Marketing

Dawson’s Holiday Messes: “When Dawson was 2 or 3 years old, my parents switched from a plastic Christmas tree to a real tree for the first time in years. Dawson was very confused by this and did a lot of sniffing to investigate. After realizing it was a real tree, he decided he needed to mark it as his and tried to pee on it and stained the tree skirt. That was the last Christmas for that tree skirt, and the wood floor underneath required a lot of scrubbing to get clean.”

Milo—Mini Bernedoodle

Owner: Eva L, Marketing

Milo’s Holiday Messes: “Milo has fluffy white paws, so we are always trying to keep them clean this time of year. We keep a towel by the door and make sure to get them trimmed up frequently in the winter as well. Milo loves to be in the kitchen when we are cooking, but he is always in the wrong places at the wrong times, so we got him a snowflake lick mat to keep his attention while be prepare all of our holiday meals and treats. It's perfect for peanut butter, fruit, and even frozen with yogurt!”

Luca—Mini Goldendoodle

Owner: Taylor B, Marketing

Luca’s Holiday Messes: “This is going to be Luca's first Christmas! He decided to express his holiday cheer by taking ornaments off the tree and and busting them all over the floor. The pieces went EVERYWHERE and required quite the cleanup. Hopefully, Santa wasn't watching, or else he is ending up on the naughty list this year.”

Tesla, Jelly, and Thor—Black Cats 

Owner: Lauren L, Accounting

Note: Unfortunately, we couldn’t get all the kitties in one photo, so only Jelly is pictured above, but we still wanted to share how each cat spends the holidays below!

Tesla, Jelly, and Thor’s Holiday Messes: “Tesla likes to knock off the mini-Christmas tree with breakable ornaments. He also likes to spill holiday cocktails on my rug.

Jelly finds peace in eating the fake tree and proceeding to vomit on anything with carpet. She also slides her behind on my parent's carpet after using the litter box... haha

Thor enjoys spilling coffee off the table. He also likes to escape to the basement, which brings up dirt/dust into the main area.”

Missy—PitBull Mix

Owner: Kaleigh B, Marketing

Missy’s Holiday Messes: “Missy loves unwrapping presents and plucking ornaments off the tree!”