Home Maintenance Checklist For Cat Owners
Keeping up with household chores gets a bit harder when you have a cat. Luckily, the pros outweigh the cons in the eyes of many cat owners. We assembled an easy home maintenance checklist for cat owners to make things easier.
A cat owner's home maintenance checklist should include washing the food and water bowls by hand each week. It’s also important to vacuum the floors every 7 to 10 days and lint-roll the furniture as needed. Wash your bedding weekly, if possible, and replace your AC filters every 2-3 months to prevent it from clogging with cat hairs.
Most cat-owner chores come down to preventing or fixing problems before they get out of hand. Follow along as we explore some essential household chores for cat owners.
Seven Cleaning Tips For Cat Owners
Having cats comes along with a lot of household chores, and many homeowners consider them worth the trouble. That said, you can make things easier for yourself if you create and stick to a household cleaning. Keep the following seven cleaning tips for cat owners in mind:
1. Routinely Vacuum The House
Vacuuming is arguably the most essential household chore for cat owners. Not only do cats shed plenty of hair, but they also scatter litter all over the floors. Ideally, you should vacuum the floors weekly to keep up with the cat hair and loose litter on the floors.
A standard vacuum cleaner isn’t always enough, especially if you have more than one cat. That’s because cat hair often works its way into hard-to-reach crevices. For example, you’ll probably find cat hair on your AC return vents, which can be hard to remove.
In that case, you may need to use a shop vac to remove the cat hair. It’s also a great idea to use the shop vac to remove cat hair that’s stuck under and behind furniture and appliances. Don’t forget to pull your refrigerator out and vacuum the sides, as cat hair often lands there.
2. Use Litter Mats
Do you find loose cat litter throughout your house? If so, you’re not alone, and you don’t have to put up with it for much longer. Using litter mats can help you save a lot of time on basic cat owner home maintenance without spending much money.
Ideally, you have one litter mat per litter box to stop litter from spreading throughout your house. Litter mats are small, grooved mats made of plastic, silicone, PVC, or rubber. They can help contain litter messes in the area in front of your litter boxes, thus preventing big messes.
Yes, the litter mats will get dirty, but you can easily pick them up and dump the litter in a trash can. Cats often kick litter onto the floor in front of the litter box, creating an annoying mess. Litter mats can eliminate this problem and make your cat owner's maintenance tasks go quicker.
3. Replace Air Filters
Cat hair often spreads throughout the air when your air conditioner or furnace runs. Eventually, it can work its way into the air ducts and get stuck in the filters. Dog and cat owners must replace AC filters more often than homeowners who don’t have pets, in many cases.
That’s because AC filters typically get clogged more quickly when cat hair is a factor. Without the presence of a cat, AC filters get clogged because of dirt, dust, debris, and basic wear and tear. Adding cat hair into the mix can expedite the process and cause problems if you don’t replace the filter soon enough.
Check your current AC filter to see what size and brand it is. It helps to buy a few replacement filters, so you always have them on hand at home to replace them as needed. You may need to do so every 60 to 90 days.
4. Clean Litter Boxes
You should replace the litter in the litter box once a week, if not more often, depending on how many cats you have. However, simply replacing the older litter doesn’t do much to clean the box. The smell of urine will likely remain until you deep clean the box, preferably every 1 to 3 months.Â
To deep-clean a litter box, you must dump the dirty litter out and thoroughly wash the container. Do this one at a time if you have several boxes, so your cats can still use one box as needed while you clean the other one. Keep in mind that you must use cat-friendly cleaning products to ensure you don’t harm them or irritate their skin and eyes.
Many people use mild dish soap and hot water to clean the litter box. The trick is to thoroughly scrub the box with the solution, rinse it with a hose until no soap remains, and let the box air-dry. Otherwise, you can use a mixture of distilled white vinegar and water instead of soap and water.
5. Wash Your Bedding
Washing your bedding is a sanitary matter, and it becomes more imperative when you have a cat. Many people love it when their cat curls up in bed with them, but it isn’t without its downsides. It won’t take long before your bedding gets covered in cat hair, so you must regularly wash it.
Wash your bedding once every 7 to 10 days to keep up with the loose cat hair. Keep in mind, your dryer lint filter will most likely get caked in cat hair and lint. Check the filter and remove the cat hair and lint after each cycle, so it doesn’t get clogged and create a fire hazard.
It’s also worth doing the same for any cat bed and blankets you’ve dedicated to your cat. Washing them early is better than washing them later when they’re covered in hair.
6. Clean The Food And Water Bowls
Cats are adorable, but their mouths are much dirtier than you may think and it’s up to you to keep that in mind and clean their food and water bowls. It doesn’t take much time or effort, so cleaning the food and water bowls twice weekly is easy.
At the very least, you should consider washing your cat’s bowls once a week if you can’t find time to do it more often. Otherwise, you’ll notice the water looking cloudy, gross, and unappealing. The easiest solution is to simply wash the bowls by hand with a sponge, mild dish soap, and warm water.
Carefully rinse the bowls with water when you’re done to make sure all the soap is gone. You can tell there’s still some soap if you fill the water bowl and notice a faint film on top of the water.
7. Remove Cat Hair From Furniture
In extreme cases, you may reach for the shop vac to remove cat hair from your furniture. However, you can typically get by with a lint roller, which is an essential item for cat owners. Think of this as spot treatment and use the lint roller on your furniture as needed.
Small lint rollers usually do the trick, but you can also find bigger ones that are more useful for large surfaces. It’s also a great idea to run the lint roller across your clothes as often as possible. Doing so can help keep loose cat hair out of your dryer and off the lint filter.
Summing It Up
Vacuum your floors weekly to minimize the amount of loose cat hair throughout your home. It’s also a great idea to set up some litter mats in front of your litter boxes to stop litter from spreading all over the place. Wash the food and water bowls weekly and deep-clean the litter boxes every 1 to 3 months.
Related Guides:
Nick Durante is a professional writer with a primary focus on home improvement. When he is not writing about home improvement or taking on projects around the house, he likes to read and create art. He is always looking towards the newest trends in home improvement.
More by Nick Durante
