The principle behind every decision
Sewage carries bacteria and other pathogens that soak into anything porous. If an item can be cleaned and disinfected all the way through — not just on its surface — it can usually stay. If contamination gets into material that can't be reached, cleaning only treats the outside of a problem that's still inside.
Usually salvageable
- Hard, non-porous items: glass, ceramic, metal, solid plastic, sealed stone
- Dishes, cookware, and utensils — washed and disinfected, with food-contact surfaces handled carefully
- Solid wood furniture with intact finish, if contact was brief and it can be cleaned and dried
- Most clothing and washable textiles, laundered separately in hot water at the highest safe setting for the fabric
- Jewelry, tools, and hardware
Usually not salvageable
- Mattresses, pillows, and upholstered furniture that absorbed contaminated water
- Carpet and carpet pad — pad in particular acts like a sponge and is effectively never cleaned in place
- Particleboard, MDF, and laminate furniture, which swells and delaminates and can't be disinfected internally
- Stuffed toys, foam, and similar soft porous goods
- Any food, including sealed packaging and canned goods that contacted sewage, and anything in a contaminated refrigerator
- Cosmetics, medicines, and baby items that got wet
- Paper goods, cardboard storage boxes, and their contents if soaked
The genuinely difficult category
Photographs, documents, books, artwork, and heirlooms sit between the two lists. Specialized restoration exists for some of them — freeze-drying, ozone or other document treatment — and it's sometimes worth it for irreplaceable items. It is also expensive and not always successful. What helps most is deciding early: set those items aside, don't let them dry contaminated and stuck together, and ask about specialty restoration before the general cleanup proceeds.
Photograph before anything moves
Take wide shots of each affected room and close-ups of individual items before they're touched, and keep a written list with approximate age and value as you go. Discarded items can't be re-documented later, and this record is the difference between an insurance conversation that goes smoothly and one that doesn't.
Why the "but it looks fine" instinct is misleading
Contaminated water leaves very little visible evidence on many surfaces once it dries. A couch that looks and smells acceptable a week later can still hold what soaked into the frame and foam. The visual test simply isn't the right test here — the material's porosity is.
Don't clean sewage-soaked items in the house
Washing contaminated goods in a kitchen sink or running them through a vacuum spreads the problem into rooms that were never affected. Bag what's leaving, handle salvageable textiles in a dedicated wash, and keep contaminated items out of unaffected areas entirely.
Deciding what to keep after a backup? Call (971) 758-0049 and we'll walk through it with you.