Mice mice mice, and not the good kind either

Post date: 2021-04-17 09:39:51

Over the winter some mice got into a closet full of stuff. I need advice on cleaning and disposing of things.

First off, I'm not super worried about hantavirus - these are city mice in a second floor closet. I believe that my talented mouser cat brought them up here and released them to play with, because I've seen her bring mice upstairs before. We live in a porous old Victorian with a mouse problem but there are generally no mice upstairs.

The closet, unfortunately, is large and contained:
-Cardboard shoeboxes of shoes
-Two open tubs of shoes
- Fabric-covered boxes containing various things
- A shelving unit
- Lidded plastic tubs
- A net basket of hangers

I can see one spot where the mouse/mice had some kind of fluffy stuff from somewhere yet to be discovered - I have sprayed this and the floor immediately inside the closet with bleach and water. The tubs and boxes are stacked inward and will need to be dealt with layer by layer before the entire closet can be cleaned.

I have started on the tubs of shoes. Most of the shoes seem not to have been moused, so I have wiped the exterior and the heel portion with bleach and water and set them aside.

Several of the shoes have a little mouse shit in them (not that "a little" makes it any better). These are leather shoes, fairly well constructed. Can I wash them out well with bleachy soapy water or do I need to discard them? They seem not to be saturated with anything.

I am going to throw away all cardboard and fabric-coated boxes and wipe down all the plastic with bleach and then wash it.

Ultimately, I assume that I'll be able to spray the floor with the bleach/water mix and then mop it, plus wipe down the storage unit.

I wore a surgical mask when I started work on this. What else do I need to do? I'm hoping I don't need to discard the shoes that look untouched.

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