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Without sacrificing cleanliness, style, or function.
Recently, I chatted with a woman about my job writing about dogs, cats, and the pet industry. She said she loved animals, cats in particular, just not in her house.
Why?
Well, she said, she can’t stand the sight of carpet-covered cat trees and she refuses to live in a home that smells like a litter box.
Yeah, girl. Me, too.
But that conversation made me realize it takes a little effort and a little knowledge about cats to figure out how to make your home cat-friendly AND maintain your home how you’d like it.
I don’t want anyone to miss out on the joy of loving cats, so I’m sharing my top tips for keeping Newtie and Ripley happy while keeping a functional, clean, odor-free, family-friendly house.
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How to Cat-Proof Your Home
As in all things with animals: Safety is paramount. It’s the first and last consideration for anything pet-related.
Here are ways to cat-proof your home, though this is by no means exhaustive or applies to all cats:
- Secure cords on blinds and curtains.
- Store your trash, compost, and recycling in a cabinet or with a closed lid.
- Anchor TVs, book cases, shelves, and furniture that could topple to the wall. Check out these baby proofing options. They work perfectly for mischievous cats, too.
- Make it a habit to close the washer and dryer, cabinets, freezer, anywhere your cat could get stuck.
- Hide electrical cords. I bought a bunch of these for the kitchen, living room, and office. They work wonderfully to keep the cats safe and to keep all our electronics organized.
- Remove access to swallow-able dangers like batteries, cigarette butts, essential oils, cleaning chemicals, bug spray or pest control products, mothballs, medications, and so on. At our house, this includes plastic bags and tape (Ripley.) and any type of string, ribbon, elastic, hair tie, and so on (Also Ripley.).
- Re-home toxic plants. Here’s the best reference.
Think of your cat as a smarter, craftier, feistier toddler. Consider how you’d keep a toddler safe in your home and then imagine that toddler had better fine motor skills. I’ve “proofed” my home for babies, toddlers, puppies, adult dogs, cats, and kittens, and–far and away–cats can get in the most serious trouble the fastest. (Dogs can cause the most significant damage the fastest, but that’s another post for another day.)
How to Meet Your Cat’s Needs at Home
Once your home is safe, consider what your cat needs:
- Healthy food, of course.
- Access to fresh, clean water. (Cats LOVE fountains, btw, because of the movement. We have two, plus two still water dishes, and their favorite is this one. By far.)
- A clean place to go to the bathroom. More on this in a minute.
- Enrichment / stimulation. That includes positive interactions with you like petting, play, or grooming!
- An appropriate place to scratch.
- A place to hide. This can be as simple as an Amazon box or as elaborate as a multi-level cat condo.
- Preventative medical care. Take your cat to the vet, for real.
- For multi-cat households, multiply the above. For instance, you need one litter box per cat, plus one. You need one water dish per cat, plus one. Allowing access to multiple resources spread throughout your space prevents territoriality and fights.
Cats whose needs aren’t met experience stress. They’re at risk for health and behavior issues.
A Separate Note on Litter boxes
Don’t let this be the thing that stops you from bringing home a cat. When I speak with non-cat people, so often they cite litter boxes as the reason they don’t want a cat. I’m here to tell you: There are SO MANY solutions from the litter you choose to the type of box you have to how often you scoop to your cat’s diet and more.
Let’s dig into two of my favorites: litter box furniture and the QAIS air purifier.
Litter box furniture
We have two cats and three litter boxes.
If you have the budget and space, you can conceal your litter box in a piece of furniture like this (woah.) or like this. If you don’t want to ever see your litter boxes (except when scooping), there’s furniture for that. I searched “litter box furniture” on Amazon and there’s literally something for every budget and style: check it out here.
Even simple cubes like this work great; we used to have one just like that but in white. Ultimately, we got rid of that because the footprint was so much bigger than just a litter box, and we needed the space more than we needed the aesthetics.
So, now we have three of these and each one has a mat underneath to collect stray pieces of litter. My Amazon history says I bought them in April 2020, and I’m writing this in May 2024, and they’re in as good of shape as they were on day one. They’re easy to scoop and clean, and they prevent litter from getting everywhere. We’ve tried LOTS of litter mats but ended up with the fluffy bath mats from IKEA. They work great and can be tossed in the washer and dryer.
QAIS Air purifier
Real talk: All those litter commercials that claim no odors for seven days? First, that’s impossible. Absolutely impossible. Second, think about what that means. If you’re not scooping your box daily, your cat is literally standing in her own bathroom to go. That’s gross and inhumane. Plus, it’ll track all over your house. Scoop every single day.
More real talk: Even scooping every day, there are odors.
I was sent the QAIS Filterless PCO Air Purifier for pets and pet owners to try, and let me set the scene:
When you walk into our house, as soon as you step inside, the laundry room–and litter box–is immediately to your left and our kitchen is immediately to your right.
That means if either Newt or Ripley use the box while we’re out, you walk into the house and right into the odor. Or, if they go while you’re cooking, the odor infiltrates the kitchen.
Enter the QAIS air purifier!
It hangs on the wall. Installation was a breeze. It took John about 10 minutes from opening the box to cleaning up the trash.
There’s no filter (no waste!), so you just need to wipe it off or vacuum dust and hair. It decomposes unwanted odors, including ammonia, acetic acid, and cooking smells. It’s also super quiet. I can’t hear it running while I sit and type this post at the kitchen table.
More than that, though, it’s pet-safe and pet-friendly AND the company even provides cord covers to keep your furry mischief makers from chewing on the electrical wires.
We hung it above the litter box in the laundry room to eliminate the odors from when you walk in or from in the kitchen.
Total game changer for us, and for anyone who is nervous about bringing a cat home because of the odors, this will eliminate that concern (and the odors!) completely.
Our only regret? That we didn’t have this back when the girls were still in diapers! If you have babies, you need this for above your diaper pail!
How to Keep your House Clean with Cats
If you’re new here, you may not yet know this, but cleaning is my love language. When stress descends, I start scrubbing. I think there’s a saying somewhere about the cleaner the house, the messier the mind, and it’s true for me.
In addition to scooping litter boxes daily and using the QAIS Filter to keep the air odor-free, you need to sweep or vacuum to get up all that hair.
We also bought a big stack of steel cat dishes. After every meal, I load their bowls straight into the dishwasher.
Soft cat toys go through the washing machine, along with blankets and beds, a couple times a month.
I change the water filters on the fountains every two weeks and put the fountains through the dishwasher.
That’s it! Their stuff stays clean!
We also sanitize our counters and table before cooking or eating because our cats jump up there (and yours do, too, even if you think they don’t) so keeping surfaces clean is a priority.
However, we use cat-safe cleaners because what touches their feet eventually gets in their mouth when they groom. My favorite is Dr. Bronner’s Castile soap, which is a surfactant I dilute in a spray bottle. It is a BARGAIN because the big bottle gets diluted and lasts forever.
How to Have Fun with Your Cat
We’ve covered safety, meeting your cat’s needs, keeping your home clean, and litter box management. All that will make your home safe and cozy for your cat. All that is GREAT! Also, also, your cat wants to have fun, too!
Here are some of Newt’s and Ripley’s favorite ways to have fun:
- Chase the treat: Exactly as it sounds, toss treats far and wide for them to chase and gobble.
- Feather wands: Always let them “win” at the end!
- Walk them on leash: I have a full guide available on how to train your cat to walk on a leash here!
- Laser play: I know this is incredibly controversial. I’ve seen people online call them cruel or dangerous. They certainly can be misused, but I think the key is to always let your cat “catch” it by either ending it on a treat or on a toy. No one wants to play a game that they can’t win, and if they feel like the dot is still out there somewhere, they could fixate. Newt LOVES chasing the laser, and she knows the sound of me picking it up and sprints to me the second she hears it. I always finish with a round of chase the treat, first with the laser on the treats and then the treats by themselves. Ripley likes-ish to chase the laser but loses interest quickly. You know your cat, so do what’s best for your specific pet’s personality.
- Grow some catnip!
The “extra” Steps for How to Make Your Home Cat-Friendly
Here are some ideas for how to make your home cat-friendly that might be a little bit–or a lot bit–extra!
- Build a catio: I’ll have a post on this soon with how we built ours and what the girls think. (Spoiler: They LOVE it.)
- Install a cat super highway: We haven’t done this–yet–but it’s at the top of my to-do list. I’m thinking along these lines… (:
- Cat trees: Cats need places to climb and to get away from it all. A cat tree is extra because your cat can easily use your furniture. However, cat trees can be pricey and take up a ton of space. If it’s in your budget and you have room, these can be GREAT! (Check out this reel of me and Newt assembling one we just recently purchased at Costco!)
None of these are necessities. Every cat, every family, and every home is different. Find what works for YOU and do more of that.
Cat peeps, tell us:
How have you made your home cat-friendly? What are some things that work well for your cat? Or, if you have questions about any of the above, drop ’em in the comments so we can all help our cats live their best lives!
If you enjoyed this post, you’ll love my forthcoming book, For the Love of Dog, from Regalo Press in February 2025. It’s chock full of the latest research in canine cognition combined with stories of my dogs (and cats!) to bring the data to life. To stay up-to-date on the latest with my publication news, please join the mailing list or follow along on Instagram. I’d love to connect with you more!
Images: Alexander London on Unsplash and Mikhail Vasilyev on Unsplash
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