Here is a photograph of my little boy cat, contentedly sitting on his scratching board having just scratched it vigourously. Before that I had sprayed some catnip on it. When spraying catnip onto the scratching board I made sure that none of it goes onto the carpet. After I had photographed him got off and he is now outside. If your cat is scratching the carpet use one of these flat scratching posts by which I mean horizontal and if he is scratching the sofa or wallpaper use a vertical one but make sure that it is very solid and large.