How To Keep a House Clean With Cats:11 Essential Tips
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As the 2nd-most popular pet in the United States, cats can be found in millions of homes, where they bring us joy, laughter, and good times. Of course, cats are also fur-covered animals that shed, catch and kill small animals, knock items off shelves, and otherwise make a mess.
Luckily, cats are so endearing that we forgive them for these trespasses. However, forgiving or not, the messes your cat makes still need to be cleaned up. On the other hand, preventing some of their messes will save you valuable time and effort. To that end, we have 11 tips on how to keep a house clean with cats.
The 11 Tips on How to Keep a House Clean with Cats
1. Feed Your Cat Anywhere but the Kitchen
It can be very tempting to feed your cat in your kitchen. After all, that’s where you keep your cat’s food, water, and bowls. Also, the kitchen has a sink and running water to clean their bowls after your cat eats. The problem is that feeding your cat in the kitchen is a recipe for disaster.
First, someone can knock over the food or water bowl, especially children, and cause a slippery, dangerous mess. Second, spilled food can attract insects and rodents to your kitchen. It’s better to feed your kitty in the mud room, laundry room, or other low-traffic area. If you have a screened-in porch, you can also feed your cat outside when the weather is nice.
2. Choose the Best Spot for Your Cat’s Litter Box
There’s no doubt that the messiest part of being a cat parent is dealing with the litter box. As with their bowls, you can put your cat’s litter box in your laundry room, a spare bathroom, or any room that‘s used infrequently.
Also, consider putting the litter box on a tiled floor to make the clean-up easier and prevent stains. You might also consider putting a mat underneath the litter box to catch any litter that your cat inadvertently kicks out of the box. Hiding the litter box in a small cabinet is also an excellent idea.
3. Purchase a HEPA Vacuum Cleaner
One of the best tools to use when you want to keep your house clean with cats in it is a HEPA vacuum. HEPA stands for “High-Efficiency Particulate Air,” and the souped-up vacuums have a powerful filter that traps incredibly small particles, including fur, dust, and dander.
Not only will a HEPA vacuum keep your home cleaner when you have cats, but it will also reduce the possibility of allergic reactions. Experts recommend thoroughly vacuuming your home with a HEPA vacuum at least twice a week if you have one cat and more regularly if you have several.
4. Brush Your Cat Regularly
Although it’s not particularly gross or smelly, cat hair piles up everywhere in your home when you have a cat. If you want to reduce the amount of cat hair you find in all the nooks and crannies of your home, brushing your cat regularly is a good way to do it. Even better, brush your cat outside so any fur that drifts away won’t settle back into your house.
5. Give Your Cat a Blanket
Some fabrics are difficult to clean when they’re covered with cat hair. The best way to reduce hair on your furniture is to cover it with a blanket. You don’t have to cover all your furniture, but you can add blankets to the chairs and couches your cat likes to visit.
6. Keep Your Cat Off Your Kitchen Counters
Cats love climbing on any surface they can reach, which is almost every surface in the average home. That includes countertops, where it’s unhygienic for them to be prancing around with their (often dirty) paws.
One method of keeping cats off your countertops is to put aluminum foil on them, which many cats don’t like because of how it looks, feels, and sounds. Another is to put double-sided, sticky tape on your countertops.
If you can’t keep your cats off your countertops, you must clean them regularly with antibacterial soap. The last thing you want is for you or someone in your family to get sick because of germs or bacteria your cat’s paws left on your countertops.
7. Be Sure to Air Out Your Home Occasionally
When the weather’s nice outside, and it’s not too windy, open up all the doors and windows and leave them open for a few hours to let in fresh air and let the cat odors escape. Be sure to put your cat in a room with the door closed if they’re indoor cats so they can’t escape.
8. Use a Litter Mat
A litter mat can be placed directly under your cat’s litter box. It looks like a small carpet or rug but has the distinct advantage of being able to trap cat litter. Not only will this prevent your cat from bringing litter into the rest of your house, but it also makes it much easier to clean up after your kitty when you clean out their litter box.
9. Bring Your Trash Can to the Litter Box (Not Vice Versa)
When cleaning out their cat’s litter box, many people carry it through their home to get to their trash can. However, it’s better to take your trashcan to the room where the litter box is located and dump the litter box into it. You can prevent spreading litter to the rest of your house, and if your litter box is near an outside door, you can take it outside and toss it directly into the outdoor trash can.
10. Pick a Spot to Store All Your Cat Cleaning Gear
Grooming tools like brushes, cleaning products to clean stains and odors, cat toys galore, and other feline-centric stuff should be stored in the same location. You can pick a cabinet, closet, or drawer to store your cat supplies and gear. It will cut down on the clutter, and everything will be together in one convenient spot for easy access when needed.
11. Be Sure to Have Enough Litter Boxes
If you have one cat, one litter box will usually suffice, but with multiple cats, you’ll need a litter box for each feline plus one. Having enough litter boxes is important for several reasons. First, it cuts down on territorial problems and fights between cats. Second, a single cat litter box will get full quickly if more than one cat uses it.
Lastly, if too many cats use one litter box, you can bet that some or all of those cats will eventually stop using it because it gets nasty. That, of course, creates a whole other problem.
Final Thoughts
There’s no denying that it can be difficult to keep a clean house when you have a cat. If you have multiple cats, you have your work cut out for you to keep your home clean and hygienic all the time. Cats are cute, but they inevitably make a mess (and it gets worse the longer you let it go).
The best advice is to keep up with cleaning rather than letting it slide. If you make cleaning up after your cat a habit, it will take far less time and energy to keep your home looking and smelling clean, whether you have one cat or several of them.
Featured Image Credit: New Africa, Shutterstock
