As you can imagine a house with 12 cats and 3 humans - there's never a shortage of cleaning to be done. There's never a day that goes by that I don't have to do some sort of cleaning. Whether it's scooping litter, sweeping floors, vacuuming, laundry, picking up toys, cleaning up little hairballs, the list truly goes on and on.
We did recently replace our washer - money I would rather have spent on something else. But the washer is amazing, the wash time is shorter which I love - and the clothes come out just as clean! Laundry is one of those things that I never have completely done. I can do 2 - 3 loads a day and still not get caught up. For the longest time, I would wash the cat beds & blankets weekly or bi-weekly to help with the cat hair and dander but felt that they could still be covered in cat hair.
About 2 months ago, I realized, why am I washing the beds and cat blankets so often? They aren't dirty to the point of needing a wash, they just need a good deep hair removal. My ah-ha moment came one day when I was like how can I get the laundry done faster. My brain started thinking and came up with a simple solution. The cat beds now get sprayed with a few spritz of water or a water/laundry softner mix, tossed in the dryer for about 20 minutes and put back out!
They are fresh smelling and free of hair. The cats also get to enjoy a hot bed at nap time! I know, what am I saving? 30 minutes of time for 3-4 loads of cat bedding - trust me that adds up when you are out of the house for more than 8 hours a day. While it may be a ton of energy/electric to run the dryer (for those conservative people out there). I do line dry some items that get washed everyday.
We have some cats that prefer to pee direcly on puppy pads instead of in a litter box with litter. So I do 2 loads a day of re-usable puppy pads - on days the weather coaperates, they get hung on the line. I have an entire closet dedicated to cat pads. This way if I get behind on the washing, there are always clean ones.
As you can imagine, it could get a bit stinky where they use the puppy pads instead of litter. One of my cleaning finds - OdoBan. It works to freshen the air, puppy pads and litter boxes. This is something that is a multi-use and a true product win in my house. Not only does it help keep the house smelling fresh and clean, but I can also add it to the laundry as a disinfectant! Which helps keeps things smelling fresh too! I recently discovered - it is available on chewy and amazon for a refillable size - much cheaper!
I'm sure you can imagine the amount of litter, dust, hair and dander that is flying around and collecting in the corners of my house. I have been throught a billion heavy duty vacuum cleaners that all claim to be made for pets. Another more recent find - a lightweight bissel vacuum - that I absolutely adore. It works on all of the hard floors and has the ability to be a dustbuster. The one thing I don't like - the cord is exteremly short. Otherwise it checks off all the boxes: Lightweight, easy to use, picks up more dirt and debris than if I used a broom.
I use that everyday now on any hard floor surfaces. Followed by that I do a quick swiffer mop of the floor. I'm still amazed at how much I can vacuum up in one day - but now my house is that much cleaner by using it daily.
The take away here - use the dryer for a quick removal of pet hair and vacuum or sweep everytday!
Till our tails cross again,
Mel
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