Many mess-creating incidents involving your cat are not intentional. In fact, some of them are accidents that your cat would like to avoid just as much as you would.
When they throw up, they cannot always choose the time and the place that happens.
If they have a toileting problem, they may not have complete physical and/or emotional control over that.
Shedding hair is a natural process with cats, so the cat hair must end up somewhere.
Yes, these things happen. Cats, like humans, are not perfect.
7 Ways to Reduce Cat Messes at Home
1. Litter Box Cleaning Promotes Litter Box Usage by Your Cat
Cats insist on clean litter boxes. This should be a top priority in preventing inappropriate toileting.
In some situations, multiple litter boxes may be called for even if you have only one cat. For instance, if no one is home during the day who can clean the box, more than one box could increase the chances there will always be a litter box that is clean or almost clean.
Another instance would be if you have a multi-level home. In this case, perhaps you should consider at least one box for each level.
Of course, if you have multiple cats, then you really should have multiple boxes.
I have often seen a recommendation that the number of litter boxes in a household should be one box for each cat, plus one more box. I think this is a good idea, except when you have a considerable number of kitties in the home.
At one time I lived in a home that had a little over 1600 square feet of living space and we had six indoor kitties. Having seven litter boxes in that home would not have been very practical. Fortunately, we were home during the day and could keep the boxes clean.
The general idea of multiple litter boxes is indeed a good one. It will be up to you to decide what is a realistic number of boxes for your home.
Proper litter box maintenance will hopefully go a long way to preventing poop and urine messes.
Some litter box designs are easier to keep clean than others. My blog post 7 Tips to Choose a Litter Box will help you find a litter box you can clean with minimal effort.
2. Provide Cat Beds as an Alternative to Cat Napping on Furniture
Cats spend a lot of time napping and lounging. Wherever they do this typically ends up with cat hair on it. That’s just the way it is.
I believe that rather than attempting to deny our cats access to a particular place in the home, we should just give them alternatives that they might choose. Hopefully those alternatives would be less trouble for us as well as safer and more comfortable for them.
Having multiple cat beds is a strategy that could reduce the cat hair on sofas and beds. Cat beds with removable covers is a plus, since the covers are much easier to brush off and put in the washer than is an entire cat bed.
My blog post How to Choose a Cat Bed will help you find cat beds that are easy to keep clean.
Cat trees can serve as cat beds also, with the added bonus that they also come with scratching posts as an additional distraction. The more distractions the better.
There are most definitely certain features you want to have in a cat tree, and you should know what those are before spending your money. Visit my blog post How to Choose a Cat Tree to find out what you should look for before buying a cat tree.
3. Groom Your Cat to Reduce Hairballs
When cats groom themselves they get hair on their tongue, and some of that hair ends up in their digestive system. It can then form into a mass called a hairball.
Those hairballs may then end up being thrown-up by your cat. This is usually not a big mess, and it typically is some fluid that looks like spit and is held together by hair.
Although they are called hairballs, most of those I have seen were not shaped like a ball, but were about the size and shape of a human finger.
Regular grooming may remove hair that would otherwise end up in your kitty’s stomach and then show up as a hairball. You might call this preventive maintenance.
You may like my blog post How to Deal With Cat Hair to get some ideas about how to choose a grooming brush. There are several variations you should know about.
By the way, grooming your cat is something both you and your kitty might enjoy. It is a great way to spend some quality time together.
4. Clean Quickly to Prevent a “Return to the Scene of the Crime”
According to an article by the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, when a cat soils a given area, that area will be marked by the cat’s scent.
Since cats are prone to return to a marked area to mark it again, it is best if you clean that area quickly.
I would guess you would be inclined to do this without any encouragement from me, but I mention this simply as a reminder to have on hand a good stock of cleaning supplies so you can leap into action when the need arises.
To assist you in finding a cleaner with non-toxic ingredients, I include here a link to the website of an organization called the Environmental Working Group.
5. Put Bagged Food Where Your Cat Cannot Get To It
Cats are absolute experts at ripping open paper bags or shredding sheets of paper. The combination of claws and curiosity is no match for even the sturdiest paper.
Also keep in mind that they can open kitchen cabinets.
My reasoning behind this advice is, first of all you would not want them getting into anything that might be a problem for them.
Secondly, if the bag contains cat food, that stuff will end up all over the place. And don’t even think about letting them get into a bag of treats. If you have multiple cats, as we did, that can result in what I would call a “treat riot”.
6. Invest in a Light-Weight and Easy-To-Use Vacuum Cleaner
A light-weight and efficient vacuum cleaner with a hand-held option will make life with your kitty so much more fun. Life in general is a lot better when we have strategies that make chores quick and easy to do. Even more so if you have a cat.
In addition to keeping cat hair in check, a good vacuum will minimize cat dander which can carry proteins that may cause allergic reactions in some people.
Most cats I have known were frightened by the sound of a vacuum cleaner, so when you start your vacuum, try to be some reasonable distance from your cat. After you get it started, they will probably keep their distance.
7. Try to Be Patient With Your Kitty
If you have in your home a mess that was not caused by you, then you are living with another adult, a child, or a pet. You have companionship.
A home without a little mess can be a lonely place.
“A home without a cat ___ and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat ___ may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?” — Mark Twain from “Pudd’nhead Wilson”
We invite our cats into our home. We cannot always predict how things will work out, but I would wager it would prove to be an experience to be treasured and appreciated.
Remember to Love Your Kitty
My blog post Living With Your Cat will provide even more advice on how to make life with a kitty a great experience, even with all the mess.