So you’ve decided to adopt your first kitten—congratulations!
Having a new pet around is always a happy occasion, especially with this tiny and furry thing keeping you on your toes with its immense cuteness.
But having a new kitten at home also brings about another concern: cleanliness. Bringing in a new, unpredictable pet means that disruptions will be made to your regular schedule.
As a kitten won’t be housetrained just yet, certain measures need to be taken to ensure that your home still maintains a certain level of cleanliness.
If you’re feeling a little anxious about kitty’s arrival, we’ve got you covered with some handy tips to keep your home spick and span at all times, even with your new furkid living under the same roof.
Have A Handheld Vacuum Handy
Most of us will already have a vacuum at home, but hear us out when we say you should definitely invest in a handheld vacuum cleaner.
A handheld vacuum will be lighter and easier to reach out to if any accidents should happen with the new kitten. That includes mess like the kitten tipping over its kibbles bag, cat hair on just about everything, and more.
By having a handheld vacuum like the Black & Decker dustbuster QuickClean Cordless Hand Vacuum With Motorized Upholstery Brush around, you’re more likely to clean up the mess as soon as you see it, simply because it’s more accessible than your bulky vacuum cleaner.
Brush Your Kitten Regularly
It goes without saying that cats shed—a lot.
One of the wonderful things of being a cat owner is that you’ll soon find cat hair in just about everything you own, from your sofa to your clothes, and maybe even the milk in your cereal.
To remedy that, be sure to give your new kitten a good brush regularly. Do it daily especially if it’s a long-haired cat.
This regular brushing will also lessen the issue of hairballs around the house, seeing as cats tend to groom themselves often.
Get An Automatic Food And Water Feeder
Kittens are playful, so chances of them messing up their food and water bowls are pretty high.
But that won’t happen if you don’t leave open bowls of water and food lying around.
Invest in automatic food and water feeders, and you’ll have one less mess to worry about. It’ll also ensure that your kittens are not overfed, and fresh water will always be available. This helps if you’re busy and don’t necessarily have pockets of time to feed your cat.
One important thing to note is also to keep your kitten’s food and water bowl out of the kitchen.
While it might seem natural to place it there, water spills will make the kitchen more accident prone, and you definitely don’t want that to happen in your home.
Instead, place the food and water bowls in a less high-traffic area of the home.
Also, place a mat under the bowls to catch the spillage. You won’t even need to mop it up later—just toss the mat into the washing machine.
Keep Low Shelves And Kitchen Counters Clean
The good news is that your kittens don’t have the ability to jump up to the higher spots just yet.
The bad news, however, is that they can reach the lower heights. Worse news? They won’t stop trying, being the playful and feisty kittens that they are.
Hence, it will be wise to keep your lower shelves and kitchen counters free of items that they might be able to get a hold of. Think fragile items as well as objects that may contain spillable liquid.
If you have reed diffusers in your home, it will be wise to discard them.
Not only will they pose as a playful item to your new kitten, but its contents are also harmful to your pets and the essential oils may burn their skin.
While you don’t want to hinder your new kitten from its true nature of climbing, keeping areas where it may get to clean will give you peace of mind for your home’s cleanliness.
Get A Good Litter Box
You might think that a litter box cannot get any more innovative, but modern inventions will surprise you.
Far from its original design of being just a box filled with litter, they now come in a variety of shapes and designs, including the most home-friendly one: a covered, top-entry litter box, like the Petsafe ScoopFree Ultra Self-Cleaning Litter Box.
Without the lid of the litter box open and the litter exposed to a playful kitty, you run less risk of having to clean up the mess when your kitten decides to scatter litter out of the box.
With a top-entry litter box as well, your kitten won’t bring residual litter out of the box and onto the rest of the house.
This is because a top-entry litter box means that the cat will need to land at the top of the litter box first before exiting it.
If it were a traditional litter box, it would step away from the box with its paws covered in litter sand, which won’t be good news for your floor.
Invest In A Pet-Friendly Sofa Slipcover
Take a good look at your current sofa—is it made out a fabric that’s pet-friendly?
It might not be the first thing you consider when you’re thinking about how to keep a home clean with a new kitten, but the right sofa material will make it a whole lot easier.
For example, your sofa’s fabric should be made of one that is tightly woven—such as velvet or leather—so that your kitten’s claws don’t get stuck in them.
Also, it goes without saying that removable sofa slipcovers make your seats a whole lot easier to clean, especially when a new pet decides to mess it up. Just remove, toss it into the washing machine, and you’re done for the day!
Thinking of making your sofa more pet-friendly? Take our sofa slipcover fabrics for a test run by having them sent to your doorstep here: