Do Cats Shed? How to Keep Your Home Clean and Cat-Friendly
When you live with a cat or several cats, it can feel like such a struggle to keep your home clean. There are so many joys that come with being a pet parent, but with as many joys as there are, it often feels like cleaning up after your shedding cat is a never-ending job. The good news is that we have plenty of practical tips for keeping the amount of cat hair in your home in check. It’s time to grab your Uproot Cleaner Pro tool to groom your cat and get rid of their fur from the couch at the same time. Here’s our handy guide to keep your home clean and cat-friendly.
TIPS FOR KEEPING YOUR HOME CAT-FRIENDLY
Cats have all different kinds of personalities and ways of marking their territories. In their eyes, your home is their entire territory, meaning you have to make it cat-friendly. Cats will do anything in your home, from crawling into tight spaces to jumping on top of appliances and countertops. It also means that you’ll need to use a pet hair removal tool to get all that cat hair off the sofa that they’ve deemed their permanent bed. These are some helpful tips for keeping your home cat-friendly.
MAINTAIN THE LITTER BOX
Imagine you’re a human that keeps using a toilet that hasn’t been flushed or cleaned. That’s how your cat feels when you’re not cleaning or properly maintaining their litter box. Plus, a properly cleaned and maintained litter box will help eliminate that pungent cat litter smell. The box should be scooped daily. You should also replace the cat litter about once a week or every two weeks. When you do replace the litter, be sure to also clean the litter box with dish soap and water. Avoid keeping your litter box in high-traffic areas like your kitchen — unless you want to deal with smelling your cat do their business every time you’re trying to cook dinner.
TIPS FOR KEEPING YOUR HOME CLEAN
Just like most cat parents, you love your cat, but you don’t exactly love all the work that comes with having to keep your home tidy. Their cat hair gets all over the furniture. Their cat smell tends to permeate the sofa and couch cushions. Keeping your home clean with a cat requires a bit more work than people with households without pets, which means you need to learn how to be more efficient with your time with handy tools like a portable pet hair remover. Keep reading to learn more about ways to keep your home clean with a cat.
REGULARLY GROOM YOUR CAT
If you don’t already have a grooming routine, now is the time to have one. Cat hair is one of the biggest challenges for pet parents trying to keep their homes clean. Their fur gets everywhere. It’s on the beautiful polished hardwood floors. It gets stuck in the sofa and your window curtains. While you can use everything from rubber gloves to lint rollers to attempt to remove cat hair, one of the easiest things to do is consistently groom your cat. It’s an easy way to ensure their hair and fur remain under control. That’s because any fur that gets on their brush means that you’ll have less fur and hair to deal with later on. Bonus: Fewer hairballs for your cat to accidentally swallow, too.
VACUUM EVERY WEEK
You should be routinely vacuuming your home anyway. It’s even more important to do so if you’re dealing with a cat at home. Vacuum your carpets, rugs and stairs. If you need to get pet hair off the furniture, use the special upholstery attachment that comes with the vacuum cleaner.
TIPS FOR KEEPING A MULTI-CAT HOUSEHOLD CLEAN
At the end of the day, keeping a home with a cat is a tad easier than keeping a house with a dog clean. Cats, for the most part, are pretty adept at cleaning themselves. If you’ve ever seen your cat just hanging out on the couch and grooming and licking their fur, you’ll see they’re pretty capable of cleaning themselves. However, it’s a whole other thing if you’re living with multiple cats in one household. Here are some basic tips for keeping your home clean when you’re in a multi-cat household.
PROTECT YOUR FURNITURE
When you have a multi-cat household, you have cats running around all over the place. They’re all over your home and your furniture. It’s hard enough trying to keep your home neat with one cat. Don’t let your furniture get caught in the crossfire of a playful multi-cat tussle. Protect your furniture. That means using furniture covers or blankets when you’re not at home to look after your cats.
GIVE YOUR CAT SPACE
We can’t emphasize enough how much cats love their space. Because they love their space, it’s important to give them room to enjoy their own domain. Consider getting perches, trees or cat shelves that can add vertical space to your room. Even if you live in an apartment, you don’t need a big home for your cats to enjoy and roam. Add space vertically so they can jump around.
ENTER THE CAT CAVE
Cats love dark places. While you might not think crawling into a dark box seems all that attractive, your cat will love it. Give your cat a cat cave where they can hide and crawl into it to feel protected. It’s their safe space. It might mean a corner in a closet. It might mean a little cardboard box just for them. Get creative.
HAVE MORE THAN ONE LITTER BOX
When you have a multi-cat household, having only one litter box is a big no-no. Ensure you have more than one litter box, ideally one litter box per cat. That way, your room will smell a bit fresher. You also won’t have to deal with cats fighting about when to use the litter box or fighting over whose litter box is whose.
UNDERSTANDING COMMON CAT MESSES
The good news is that out of all the pets you could have, being a cat parent is one of the best choices if you want a relatively clean home. Part of the reason for that, according to the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, is that a healthy cat can spend up to 50 percent of their day self-cleaning. That’s in between eating, going to the litter box and just being cute, of course. Even then, here are some important and common cat messes to be aware of when you’re trying to keep your home clean.
LITTER TRAILS
Listen, your cat can’t help it. They’re going to do their business in their litter box, and then when they get out of their litter box, they’re going to jump out. Their scattered litter will get all over the place. It’ll end up on their paws and will end up in other parts of your home. To help reduce the number of litter trails that get around your home, use a litter pad. You’ll also want to make sure you routinely clean the litter box so the litter that’s sticking on their paws is relatively fresh and not last week’s dirty litter.
CAT HAIR
When cat hair is left unchecked, it tends to get everywhere. It sticks to everything from furniture to what you wear. To help minimize the amount of cat hair in your home, be sure to regularly groom your cat. Although your cat will groom themselves and give themselves a bath by licking their fur, you can aid in the process by brushing their hair. That will help eliminate the excess amount of fur that will get everywhere.
REMEMBERING TO CLEAN UP CAT ACCIDENTS
It may seem obvious, but how often does a cat accidentally cough up a hairball or do their business somewhere other than their litter box? Probably more often than we’d like, especially if they’ve been feeling anxious or just have been doing more grooming than usual. That being said, it’s important to remember to clean up after your cat. Here are reasons why you should immediately address any cat accidents and how to address them.
ADDRESSING COUCH AND FURNITURE STAINS
If your cat does their business on the furniture like a chair or a couch, you’ll want to address the stains sooner rather than later. Ideally, your cat would have just had an accident, so you can clean it up right away. However, if the stain has already set in, there’s only so much you can do at home on your own to get rid of a stain without asking for help from a professional cleaner. Before you seek help from the professionals, try this DIY solution. Mix one part vinegar with one part water and blot the accident stain until most of the moisture has dried up. Sprinkle baking soda on the stain to help get rid of any odors.
MAINTAINING YOUR FURNITURE’S UPHOLSTERY
Upholstery can be cared for to maintain its cleanliness and quality, but you need to follow the directions that come on your furniture’s label. If it comes with a “W” label, that means you can use a water-based agent on your upholstery. “S” means that you can use mild solvents. “WS” means that you can use mild water-based detergents or solvent shampoo on your upholstery. If there’s an “X” on the label, that means that the furniture’s fabric should only be vacuumed or lightly brushed.
HOW TO KEEP A LITTER BOX CLEAN
You don’t want to smell a litter box that smells like, well, a litter box. Your cat doesn’t want to smell their business in their litter box, either. They don’t want to have to worry about ducking all the spots where they did their business. Here’s why it’s important to clean a litter box, and how to keep your cat’s litter box clean.
WHY YOU NEED TO MAINTAIN YOUR CAT’S LITTER BOX
One of the most important reasons why you want to maintain your cat’s litter box is to get rid of that used litter box smell. If you don’t want to have to constantly groom your cat and remove litter from them, be sure to routinely clean out your litter box.
TIPS FOR CLEANING AND MAINTAINING A LITTER BOX
Use dishwashing detergent and warm water inside and outside of the litter box to keep it clean. You can let the litter box air dry after washing it or wipe it down with a towel or paper towels. You’ll also want to maintain the area around the litter box. Vacuum and dust the area around your cat’s litter box regularly.
HOW TO PREVENT LITTER TRAILS
On that note, even when you clean your cat’s litter box, you don’t want their litter getting everywhere. What tends to happen is that your cat goes in the litter box, they do their business and they jump out of their litter box. Inevitable litter trails ensue because the litter gets all over their paws, their fur and the rest of your home. Keep reading to learn how to prevent litter trails.
PREVENTATIVE TIPS FOR LITTER TRAILS
Get a litter trap mat for your cat’s litter box. Put it underneath your cat’s litter box. That way, whenever your cat steps inside and outside the litter box, any remaining litter on their paws will go onto the mat rather than your home’s floors or carpet.
Get the Uproot Cleaner ProNow that you have these tips and tricks to keep your place clean, your home is about to be more cat-friendly than ever before. Remember to make the most of you and your cat’s time by using useful tools that do more than just one thing. That’s where Uproot Clean’s best pet hair remover comes in. You can use it to not only groom and brush your cat to help remove excess fur, but you can also use it on clothing, rugs, carpet, furniture and any other non-knit surface to get rid of cat and other animal fur. Say goodbye to typical cat fur and smell and hello to a much cleaner and happier cat-friendly home.
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