How To Keep Your House From Smelling Like A Litter Box
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When comparing the duties of owning a cat vs. owning a dog, the topic of the litter box will often come up as both a pro and a con. Some people will say that the litter box is an excellent advantage for pet owners, as cleaning up after your pets is contained to one area and doesnât require taking your pet outside to use the bathroom. Others will say the litter box is a con, as itâs smell has a way of emanating throughout the home. If only there were a way to enjoy the convenience of the litter box without the nasty scent. Good news, there is!
While it may be unrealistic to erase the smell of a litter box completely, there are a variety of steps cat owners can take to mitigate and isolate the litter box smell.
Essential Tools For Cleanliness
Homes so clean you could eat off the floor are few and far between. And when you factor in multiple pets, it’s not realistic to try to attain that ideal. But you can, indeed, have a clean home when you have multiple cats. That is, as long as you have the tools for the job, and are willing and able to do considerable housework. In a nutshell, here are the basic tools you need for keeping your house clean with cats:
- Cat grooming tools such as combs, brushes, and slickers
Quick Answer: How To Keep House Smelling Good With Cats
Big List of Tips for a Less-Stinky Home: How to Manage Pet Odors Keep Your Home Clean. Keep Your Pet Clean, Too. And Dont Forget to Clean Your Pets Stuff. Be Smart About the Litter Box. Air Out Your House. De-Odorize Floors. If You Cant Beat It, Cover It Up. Change Your Filters.
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Get Some Fresh Plants
Fresh plants are like a natural home deodorizer or freshener.
You could treat yourself to a bouquet at the grocery store, or buy some flowering plants to keep in your home.
Growing your own herbs is another idea to make your kitchen smell good.
Live plants also offer the added benefit of freshening the air in your home.
Add Dog Safe Indoor Air Purifying Plants To Your Home
If you have a green thumb, then adding plants to your home is a great option for keeping the air in your home fresh and healthy.
According to BioAdvanced: Plants remove toxins from air up to 87% of volatile organic compounds every 24 hours, according to NASA research. VOCs include substances like formaldehyde , benzene and trichloroethylene . Source:
Some great plant options include: English Ivy, Bamboo Palm, Chinese Evergreen, Snake Plant/Mother-in-Laws Tongue, Aloe Vera, Peace Lily, Spider Plant, Mass Cane/Corn Plant. Just remember to keep your dog away from the plants, as many can be poisonous.
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Strategically Locate Your Litter Box
Where you place your litter box plays a huge role in how much of the smell is escaping and wafting through your home. Deciding where to place your litter box varies based on your residence, but you want to choose a place that is out of sight, provides privacy for your cat, and isnt too close to a vent. By placing your litter box close to a HVAC vent, youâre bound to smell the litter box in other area of your home. Some of the better places to hide your litter box are in basements, closets, bathrooms, seldom-used rooms, and three-season rooms that get a steady flow of fresh air.
Keep On Top Of Household Odors And Always Have A Home That Smells Great
Most of these “solutions” are quick fixes for semi-emergency situations. Like when your mother-in-law decides to do a home inspection, or you want to impress that date who is coming to pick you up in an hour.
For long-term good smell, you really do have to keep the odors from starting in the first place. See option two above for places that need daily or weekly attention to prevent a build-up of horrific, hair-curling stench. And don’t forget to air your house out regularly. It is good for you, your house, and your future guests.
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Use Pet Friendly Filters
You can find furnace filters or filters that are geared towards allergy protection that work great for those with pets. Regardless of the type of filter you have, make sure to clean or change it regularly. Pet odors will cling to furnace filters as well and then youll just be recirculating pet-odor infused air. No thanks!
How Do I Make My Cat Smell Better
You have a few options to make your cat smell better. Here are a few choices:
- Bathe your cat: Bathing your cat can make him smell better, but you should not make this a regular habit. You could dry out your cats skin.
- Use a fur freshener: This can be called several things, but basically, you can purchase a spray that you can spray on your cat. Think of it as a body spray for cats!
- Change your cats food: Some cat food smells worse than others, and this can make your cat smell worse too. Try a different brand or flavor of cat food if your cat isnt too picky.
- Change the litter: Your cats litter can trap odor. If the litter is stuck to his feed, then it could make your cat smell too. Litter is often about trial and error to see what works best.
You can always do things to help your cat smell better, but there is little you can do to make your cat have no odor at all.
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Get A Pet Odor Eliminating Candle
Did you know that there are candles specifically made to help get rid of dog smells?
And theyre quite fragrant too.
Keep in mind that burning a couple of these pet candles can help mask the smell of dogs inside your home but it wont get rid of the source. Also, keep the candles high up and out of your dogs reach so they dont cause an accidental fire.
Another option is to get a wax warmer and use wax melts. You can have these going in the rooms you use the most to combat the odors and theres less of a chance for a fire igniting if one gets knocked over.
The Secret To Keeping My House From Smelling Like Dog
I dont have one single secret to a clean house. But a long list of little things I do to keep the dog smell at bay. Saturday morning is my big cleaning day, but you will notice all of the suggestions below can be daily, weekly, monthly and yearly cleaning activities.
Its also important to note that it may not be just your house, but your dog. Make sure your dog is healthy and does not have a medical reason for smelling bad. I cover health and grooming below, so make sure to keep reading.
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When Looking For A Litter Box For Your Cat Keep These Features In Mind:
This second point is especially important for older cats and those suffering with arthritis. As for the the size of the boxes, in many cases these large underbed clothes storage boxes are the best litter boxes for cats. Just don’t keep them under the bed, and make sure to take out all the clothes too 🙂
Low Odor Weed Strains
Consider smoking low odor weed strains, especially if you want to be lowkey with your habit. The scent of these strains can easily go away and isnt as funky as the skunky counterparts.
Strains such as Northern Lights, BC Mango, and Durban Poison are some of the low odor strains that you can opt for to make it easier for you to keep your house smelling good, while still delivering massive hits with their high levels of THC.
If all else fails, hold it in and dont exhale else, just toke up outside the house.
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Get Rid Of Those Musty Towel Smells
One of the lingering odor that could be jeoperdizing your homes freshness, is the moldy towel smell. Heres an easy trick to rid your towels of that gross mildewy scent.
Soak your towels overnight in hot water and a cup or two of vinegar. You can lay them in the bathtub or put them in the washing machine . Then the next day, wash them like usual, and ta-da! No more musty smell.
Change Out The Litter
In addition to daily scooping of remains from your catâs litter box, youâll want to make sure that youâre regularly changing out your catâs litter. A good pour of litter can last you up to a week if youâre scooping out remains daily. But, after about a week youâll want to empty the litter and fill the box with a fresh pour.
While the remains have been extracted from the box, the smell will stick to the litter grains. Also, if you have a litter material that is scented, the freshness of the smell will slowly fade and the smell of your cat remains to take over.
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Final Thoughts: How To Keep Your Home Clean With Cats
Even though cats are so popular among house pets they are adorable and theyre fantastic to play or cuddle with. But frankly, cats can be a handful!
Shawn is a content writer at FeedFond. Hes a doting father not only to his two children but also to his two Golden Retrievers. Check out more of his articles at FeedFond.com.
Surround The Box With Air Freshening Techniques
Sometimes extra reinforcements are necessary to suppress the smell of a litter box. There are a variety of air freshening techniques that you can deploy, including:
- Dryer Sheets: Dryer sheets are an effective, efficient, and cheap way to mitigate smell. Many people place dryer sheets in the bottom of their waste bins, and using them to combat litter-box stench is also a great method. Depending on how your litter box is set up, place a few dryer sheets either on the bottom of your litter box, near your litter box, or taped to the sides of your litter box. Theyâll provide relief much longer than youâd expect.
- Air Freshening Plug-In: These handy little units can be plugged in near a litter box to provide constant relief. One of the great things about plug-ins is that you can select from a variety of scents. This allows you to demo a few out until you find a favorite. The plug in cartridges are a bit more expensive to purchase than dryer sheets, but emitting a fresh scent to cover the litter box does wonders.
- Covered Litter Boxes: By covering your catâs litter box you can help suppress the smell. You can do this by either purchasing a covered litter box, or, by creating a DIY roof to place your catâs litter box under.
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Still Cant Get Rid Of Cat Smell
Sometimes, you may not know exactly where an old cat smell is coming from. Sprinkling baking soda on several suspected areas, giving your home a good vacuum and cleaning your hardwood floors with vinegar and water may help you find the source.
If these DIY options dont remove cat smells, or if you cant find the affected area, you may need to hire a cleaning company.
In extreme cases where the odor has dispersed through the furnishings and even walls of a room, it may be necessary to bring in a professional to treat the area, Vance says.
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How To Keep Your Home Smelling Fresh With Pets
If youve ever wondered if your home smelled like dog, Im guessing you might welcome a couple tips to keep your home smelling fresh and clean. With a couple regularly cleaned areas and practices, your home wont smell like a dog or dogs live there and you can open your door without wondering what it smells like to the person on the other side.
With two dogs, there are a lot of areas in the home that could get smelly in a hurry. Ive found that with pets, cleaning and keeping things fresh is easier with frequent cleaning and maintenance.
Have a cushion or blanket for the pet and wash it frequently
Having a specific area or areas that your pet sleeps on keeps the pet oils and fur off furniture as well as keeping the smell contained to a washable area. Washing this cushion or blanket weekly or as needed will keep the scent out of your home. When our dogs were puppies, we used old bath towels in her kennel. They can quickly be washed and dried if needed and even tossed if necessary. When purchasing a bed for your pet, look for one that has a removable, washable cover. If it doesnt have a removable cover, make sure that the bed itself is washable. If you have soft toys for your pet, toss them in the washing machine when you launder the bedding. The bed above is from Costco.
Brush and bathe frequently
Use an enzyme-based cleaner for accidents
Use a lint roller
Vacuum and wash floors regularly
Shampoo carpets regularly
Use a natural air freshener
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Do Cats Give Off An Odor
Yes, cats do give off an odor, but it is not a pungent smell.
Cats are animals and will give off an odor, but you usually need to smell it close to your cat.
Cats bathe themselves regularly, but they are not using floral shampoo or body wash as humans do. Therefore, there is a potential that your cat may smell like whatever he ate last.
Your cat may smell like fish, tuna, or even chicken.
I call this the cat food smell. Unless it is packed with one kind of fish, cat food has a particular smell that doesnt smell like anything else, even dog food.
Since your cat is cleaning himself with the same tongue and mouth that he ate breakfast with, that smell can cling to their fur for a time.
Usually, however, the smell doesnt linger, but it could still make for an unpleasant odor!
Wash Anything You Can
Pet toys and beds hold smell. So that lovely dog and cat scent that they have? It sticks to it like cling wrap and just builds. And builds. And builds. Until you now have toy and bed pet air defresheners. Throw bedding or blankets in the washing machine along with any toys that seem like theyre suitable for a washing machine. Anything that isnt washing machine safe, wash with mild dish soap and water.
Also, be sure to wash water and food bowls on a regular basis. Sanitize the dishes the same way you would your own dishes and make sure they constantly have fresh water.
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Secrets Of People Whose Houses Smell Amazing
Smell is often called humans’ most powerful sense, and good smells tell us a lot about the world: what we should eat, even whom we should kiss. When it comes to our homes, if a space smells fresh, that’s a great sign. If the smell is bad? We feel uneasy.
But the secret to a nose-friendly space isn’t to spray fragrance on top of yucky stuff: “A clean home should smell like nothing,” says Melissa Maker, the founder of the Clean My Space cleaning company, blog, and YouTube channel. For folks who get overwhelmed by too much fragrance , the work may end at neutralizing bad odors. But for those who love a scent, we have ideas for you too.
How To Clean It
Whether your cat recently urinated on a surface in your home or you have old stains and odor, it’s important to address the mess with some strategy. Here are some basic guidelines to get you started:
- Use an old towel to blot and absorb as much urine as possible as soon as you find a spot.
- Let an enzyme cleaner sit on the stained area for a few hours and dry naturally.
- Put a laundry basket over the area while it’s being treated to keep kitty away from the cleaner.
- Open windows and run fans to keep the airflow moving and help odors leave your house.
- Try to identify why your cat is having accidents .
Cleaning the area thoroughly with vinegar first and then applying an enzyme treatment will break down and evaporate the uric acid and your home will be free of cat odors. Vinegar and enzyme cleaners work on all surfaces: hardwood floors, carpets, mattresses. But remember, all types of flooring and fabrics can be affected differently by cleaners, so always test a small area before doing any treatment.
One key point to remember, however, is to never use a steam cleaner or heat on cat urine stains or spots, petMD warns. It can set the stain and make it more difficult to remove. If you have steam cleaned rugs or mattresses already, be sure to do the enzyme treatment a few times. Strong odors usually linger in fabrics and carpets longer and may need a few treatments.
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