I am thankful for my Christmas cactus.
Several months ago, my father-in-law gave me a large Christmas cactus he no longer wanted. I was happy to get it because it was a houseplant that wasn't harmful to my cats. We enjoyed its vigorous blooms before Christmas, but recently is when I've been the most happy to have it.You see, as part of the staging to sell our old house and as part of setting up our new home, we got two new rugs. They both made the rooms they were in more comfortable and attractive, but they smelled. Meaning they gave off volatiles that had that chemical, new carpet smell.
We hadn't had a new rug in years, so I didn't even think about this problem when I bought them. We got the first rug and put it down in the master bedroom as part of our staging. Each time we would enter the house, the chemical smell hit me. My mind would go into worry mode as I imagined that no one would buy a house that smelled like this. Ward, who was not as sensitive to the fumes, said that it was better to have the house smell like we just painted it (that's how it smelled to him) than to have it smell like a house that had cats living in it. After the cats moved out, we had been pretty successful in eliminating any trace of them.
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| The first offending rug. |
However, we had to do something. To get rid of the smell, we kept the windows open even though it was freezing outside. We vacuumed. We used air filters. Only slight improvements. I researched and found that some houseplants were supposed to absorb the offending chemicals. They were mostly tropical plants that disappointingly were poisonous to cats. So instead, I moved my cactus into the room. There was an improvement after adding it and luckily, by the time we were ready to put the house on the market, the smell was much better.
We thought all was well until we moved the offending rug to the new house. There when it was shut up in a little used bedroom, I started to smell it again. Not as strong as before, but there all the same. We opened the windows for a few days and that helped some. However it was getting pretty cold, so I shut the windows and moved the cactus into the room. The next day there was a definite improvement. There was not doubt about it. That plant really made a difference.
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| The other offending rug. |
That's where the plant stayed until we got a new rug for our family room. I tried to do smarter shopping this time, and while the odors from this rug were much milder, they were there all the same. The cactus moved into the family room and is currently doing it's thing. I don't even notice the smell anymore. The cats come by every once in a while and nibble on the cactus, but no harm is done to either the plant or the cats.
So for this Christmas cactus and it's magical odor-elimination-powers, I am thankful.
I didn't know some plants could absorb those odors. Good to know, although we would have the same problem you have--gotta watch out for the cat's health!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if women are more sensitive to smells. I have noticed that my daughter and I both have more sensitive noses than the males in our home. Sometimes it's helpful (I tend to spot household problems sooner due to odors--water leaks, and so on) and sometimes it's annoying, like when something new is installed and the odor bugs me. :)
I think in general women are more sensitive than men--in a sensory sort of way. For example, I know that women have more cone cells on their retina than men. That's why we can see more shades of a color than they do.
DeleteIn my own sampling, I know that I am more sensitive to most things other than sound. Sound seems to be a problem for the males. I think that's a family trait more than a gender trait.
Wow! That's amazing. Thanks so much for that little bit of knowledge. I still haven't ripped up the old carpet - planning on doing it once the weather warms up for real. Seriously, I keep having dreams about it! But honestly, one of the things stopping me is that I'm very sensitive to fumes, and even an area rug will probably have to do a lot of out gassing. So perhaps there is a Christmas cactus in my near future!
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm totally laughing about Kris' comment about women having more sensitive noses. I called the power company once because I smelled gas. It was just overwhelming to me, but when the guy came he couldn't smell anything! Then he put the little meter on and sure enough, there was a tiny, itty bitty leak. He was quite impressed by my olfactory abilities! :-)
Good idea to wait until the weather is warmer and you can keep the windows open a bit. In general, the cheaper the rug is the more volatiles there are. And if you can get a floor sample of an area rug, that would be a good thing. That way it's been unrolled for while and had a chance to degas before you get it home. There are companies out there that do "organic" rugs that say there are no volatiles, but they are a lot more expensive. Good luck. I'm looking forward to hearing about your new flooring.
DeleteI'm going to start an informal survey to see if women are indeed more sensitive to smells than men. This small sampling certainly seems to suggest that.
CatLady, good to hear from you! :) I had a similar experience with the power company to yours. We must have powerful noses. But today I have a cold so my olfactory skills aren't so great.
DeleteThat's great! I have a small one that I bought from Aldi before Thanksgiving and it's in my kitchen, but maybe I should move it to next to one of the litter boxes, lol!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if would work for litter boxes, but maybe I'll give it a try. Unfortunately, though, I think that cleaning them every day is the best way to keep the smell down. We have four litter boxes. How many do you have with all of your cats?
DeleteWe have 4 litter boxes (3 downstairs and 1 upstairs since only the kittens use it upstairs and only at night). We do clean them every day too and I wash them and change the litter completely every couple of weeks. I was just being facetious :)
DeleteI don't really like cleaning litter boxes, but if we don't keep them clean, we always pay for it by cleaning up peep or poop that's not in a box. Do you use clumping litter? We don't change the litter very often. We usually just keep it scooped and that seems to work. Maybe we're being lax.
DeleteYes, I use the Aldi clumping litter. We scoop the pee and poop every day but I still have to change the litter every 2-3 weeks. The older cats' urine is pretty pungent, I find and since our litter boxes are located in high traffic areas and the kitchen, I clean them as soon as I can smell the pee when I walk by.
DeleteIf you're using more expensive litter, it might mask the odors longer than Aldi's. My cats start complaining if we don't scoop the boxes (sometimes that happens when my son goes out of town and then I might forget to clean them one night, since it's mostly his job. Well, they used to complain back when we only had 2 cats and 1 litter box because they didn't have another litter box to use. Now with 4 of them, there's usually a back-up, at least! We'll probably add another litter box once the kittens have grown some more. Right now they're 6 months old so their poops and pees are still kitten-size, you know?
I'm sure the rest of your readership is fascinated by this conversation right now, hahaha. Sorry, everyone.
I'm not sure that cat pee and poop discussions are everyone's cup of tea, but it's easy enough to skip over them.
DeleteWe use Precious Cat litter. For years, we used Scoop Away because we could get a good price on it at Costco. However, we switched because of the dust factor. The litter dust had settled onto and into everything. We switched to Precious because of recommendations from friends and because it was supposed to be low dust. We have been very happy with it. It's not the cheapest, but worth the cost as far as we're concerned. We order it from Amazon and have it delivered to our house.
Nathalie, are your litter boxes open or do they have covers? I have one with a dome-like cover (there's an opening for the cat to enter and exit) and I get carbon air filters to insert in the grill-like opening on the top of the cover. The carbon absorbs odors and refills can be bought at places like Petco (which is where I get them).
DeleteOne of them is covered (the one in the kitchen, I've never changed the filter though... I never even though of it!) and the others are open. It doesn't seem to make a difference as to the smell though.
DeleteI had no idea that certain plants can do that- I have a Christmas cactus that I almost threw out as the cats nibbled all the ends off but lo and behold we had one bloom!
ReplyDeleteI bet that bloom was really special because it was the only one.
DeleteBTW, Jane, I have problems commenting on your blog with Disqus. Not sure why, but I've had problems on other blogs with Disqus also. Any way, I enjoy visiting your blog.
Glad to hear your Christmas cactus helped with the odors! Spider plants are another air purifier plant and considered non-toxic to cats. They used to be quite a common house plant, but I've not seen many for sale, recently.
ReplyDeleteWe used to have spider plants when the cats were younger. They would eat the leaves and then throw up. Typical cat behavior. It didn't hurt them. I just found it annoying and eventually got rid of it. You're right, I haven't seen many around. I looked in several stores for purifying plants before I used the cactus and didn't see any spider plants. I wonder why?
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