How To Keep A Clean House With Cats

We love our cats and wouldn’t trade them for anything, but they do make a mess sometimes! Whether you’re new to keeping cats or you’ve had them for years, it can be tricky to work out the best ways to keep your house in good shape with them around.

From hard-core hoovering to Persil power, here are a few tips to help you keep your house purrfectly clean.

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Get organised

You probably already keep track of the last time you cleared out your litter trays, trimmed your cat’s claws, or de-wormed your furry friends. It’s absolutely worth keeping a similar schedule for cleaning tasks. Pick weekly slots for vacuuming, washing curtains and soft furnishings, dusting, and anything else that might be necessary.

If all this seems overwhelming, don’t worry. Here are a few ways to take the stress out of cleaning up after the cats:

  1. Collaborate and delegate. If you have a partner or housemate, ask them to help out; maybe they can take one or two chores off your hands. With a task like hoovering, which everyone needs to do regardless of whether they have pets, it’s not an outrageous request. If you have kids, enlist them; it’s important that they know what goes into pet care early on.
  2. Break it down. There’s no law that says you have to do all the housework at once. Consider dusting one room per day, or setting a timer for twenty minutes when you start a task.
  3. Write it down. Whether you use a diary, a calendar, or an app, schedule your cleaning. That way you can make things happen when it suits you best, and it’ll be easier to keep track of the last time you laundered your curtains.

Wash your pet beds regularly

This is a great example of a task that should be scheduled. You’ll probably want to wash your kitty’s bedding once every couple of weeks, although this might vary depending on your cat’s unique qualities in areas such as shedding, shredding paper and knocking liquids off your tables.

Think about this when you buy bedding for your pets – you’ll have an easier time cleaning bedding you can machine wash. There are plenty of cat beds you can just chuck in the machine for convenience. Plus, a number of laundry liquids (from supermarket own brands to household names like Persil) power through pet smells while being kind on fabrics.

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Hoover, hoover, and hoover some more

This is almost certainly not news to you, but cat owners need to hoover a lot more than someone with no pets. Hoovering once or twice a week is ideal, and if you have a flea infestation you’ll need to increase that to every other day.

Hoovering is no-one’s favourite task so make it easier on yourself by investing in a quality vacuum cleaner with a HEPA pet hair filter. If you have the budget, you might also find it helpful to get one of the lighter handheld models; these make it much easier to spot clean, and the good ones make quick work of cat hair.

If you’re worried about the state of your carpets, or they’ve started to smell a bit, sprinkle some baking soda over the surface and leave it for half an hour. Then vacuum it up. This should help remove any off-putting odours (and small quantities of baking soda are perfectly safe to use around cats).

Don’t forget the furniture!

It’s easy enough to remember to clean large items of furniture, but that’s not the only thing to keep in mind when cleaning your house. It’s very important to remember to wash your curtains and cushion covers regularly – especially if your kitties like to climb. If you have a flea problem, then it is absolutely essential.

Most cushion covers and many curtains can be washed in the washing machine with standard detergents like Persil. Power through this task and enjoy the sweet smell of success at the end – just remember to check the label on your furnishings before you chuck them in the washer or dryer.

There you have it – just a few helpful house-cleaning hints to help keep you and your moggies healthy and happy.

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13 thoughts on “How To Keep A Clean House With Cats

  1. franhunne4u says:

    I have no curtains (thank you dust allergy) nor carpets (thanks again, dust allergy) – and smooth surfaces are a lot easier to clean and often without chemicals. But I can only agree about cat beds: Don’t do what I did and buy cat beds that cannot be washed! You have to throw them out over time when hoovering alone will be no help anymore.

  2. saywhatumean2say says:

    Surely you JEST! The other way is just revert back to nature and decide there is no difference between the inside of your house and the out. Works for me.
    But I must say not so well. ~~dru~~

  3. The Chaos Realm says:

    I try to wash my cat beds every week…although, I washed the pillow to one of her favourite beds…and she hasn’t used it since….any tips on how to make it (re)appealing to her?

    • coffeewitholiver says:

      Did it develop lumps after the wash? You might try try putting the clean pillow in your bed for a day to recapture your scent. I know it sounds silly, but many cats like having a familiar scent as it’s comforting. Plus, it’s possible she doesn’t like the soap’s scent and this will help dissipate it. If she likes catnip, a sprinkle on the pillow should do the trick, too.

  4. Pingback: How To Keep A Clean House With Cats – Rattiesforeverworldpresscom

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