Ah, smell. I LOVE this topic because I have OCD as well as allergies. Lol. Okay if you go to my site below my name and scroll down to the index, there are two pages about this. One is about smell and the other is about allergies. There are tons of tips on there. But I can give you a start before you even go there. First, the hardest thing, is to gut out everything and spring clean things. This is tons of work, and is extensive, but once you do it all that is needed is upkeep. I have found that once smell permiates the house, just doing a spot cleaning or just doing the ferrets does not help for long. Start with going through every ferret blanket, hammock, beanie baby, fabric toy that there is and washing them with extra rinse cycles. I don't recommend adding fabric softner because I dont know how that affects ferrets and their respirtory systems, etc. But I will admit to doing that when my house gets ovewhelmed with the smell a couple times a year. Then clean you cages and your liter pans with either the new Windex with Vinagar or mild bleach water. Next look at your ferret liter. If its clay cat liter, that does not absorb odors very well. Putting baking soda on the bottom of the liter pan before your pine pellet litter or whatever you use helps a little. Next do the ferret room if you have one. Use a sponge mop and wipe the walls with mild cleaner and water. Clean the floors as much as you can. Wipe everything out. You can't do too much in this area. Let's see, oh the ferrets... do the ferrets next. Clean out their ears first. SO much odor comes from them. Good cleaners to try are the Vets Best Ear Wash and the Marshalls Ear Wash as they go beyond the very outer ear. Bath your pets with ferret shampoo that is mild first. I have a ferret rinse, that helps with odors, softens their fur and most importantly really reduces scratchign adn dander. Can you use a childresn conditioner? I dont know. :) I did my whole horse once in Short and Sassy conditioner (three whole bottles) when I was a child. Bhaha. Mom didn't appreciate it and neither did the horse who battled the flys who also loved it that day. lol. Now we're getting somewhere! But don't stop! Ferret fur will absorb dust and odors from the air all around them. They seem to be magnets from this and even concentrate it. So.... on that note, attack the house. Shampoo and/or steam clean your carpets. Try using Natures Miracle on areas that they have had accidents. Try steam cleaning or shampooing furniture. Dust everything. Use pledge on wood. Upkeep: Wash laundry 1-2x a week. Scoop 2x a day. Clean out the liter pans totally as much as you can. Clean the cage 1x a week. Get Marshall Farms "Ferret Off". This seems to neutralize and keep odors away better than anything I've ever tried. I spray it on things that the ferrets come in contact with and their hammies. Get a nice conditioning spray for the ferrets that you nose likes. Something like PPP conditioning sprays, one of the Marshalls sprays. But don't over use them. There should be no need for them really if you do everything else. Bath the ferrets a few times a year. Clean their ears weekly. Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum. lol. If you have liter pans about your house, try having run runners or vinyl under them so that if they miss it doen'st ruin the rug. Unfortunately if there have been tons of mistakes on your rug... you really can never get rid of the urine becasue it sinks down to the padding and all that you can not really clean. But shampooing, steam cleaning, and using Natures Miracle can really reduce it. Then you can just work on prevention. Check out my site for more specific advice. For those who don't like overwhelming ferret smell, and for those who have allergies, or for those who have company that it can bother, I hope I've helped. Wolfy Wolfy's site has MOVED to: http://wolfysluv.jacksnet.com/ [Posted in FML issue 4145]