Cats can't clean everything by themselves

August 19, 2019 1:34 PM

Could you please give me all your best cleaning tips and "hacks"? Especially looking for advice from people who have cats. More details inside

I live in a small place with two cats and one boyfriend. We're not particularly messy or unclean, but I want to be even more on top of it and make sure that all my cleaning efforts are as effective as possible. One example of something I would love to know is getting cat hair out of blankets/couch covers. Is there some magic I can add to the washing machine which will help the hair come off?

Snowflakes: Considering getting pregnant in the near future. I've never had toxoplasmosis (at least not according to relatively recent blood test), but I don't think I am at particularly high risk of getting it from the cats now since they live indoors. But in terms of general hygiene, how concerned should I be about potential bio hazards from the cats? If I do need to be concerned, what type of cleaning do I need to incorporate into the routine? We already scoop their litter every day and change the entire tray regularly.

posted by kinddieserzeit to Home & Garden (17 answers total)

Just recommended this in another thread, but buy a metal-toothed slicker brush for cats. Our girl loves hers obsessively, to the point that she literally begs to be brushed every day, and gets at least an hour of brushing a day (we used this technique to socialize her from feral). She has thick, glossy, luxuriant fur, and a good amount of it comes off every day on the brush. But as a result very little of it comes off anywhere else. If your cat likes being brushed, it will save you a lot of vacuuming to do it regularly.
posted by spitbull at 1:38 PM on August 19, 2019 [7 favorites]

Seconding the Brushing of Cats as the most efficient way to control hair, while it's still concentrated on the cat and not dispersed/embedded throughout the environment.

I am not a huge fan of fabric softener sheets for the dryer, but must admit that are super-helpful in removing pet hair. Breaks the static, I think.

Our toxoplasmosis solution when I was pregnant was for my husband to handle all the litterbox cleaning. My OBGYN was perfectly satisfied with that.
posted by helpthebear at 1:49 PM on August 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

My husband throws any and all cat fur covered blankets directly in the Tumble Dryer (without washing them) and this gets rid of all the cats hair on them, well - you'll find the cat hair in the fluff tray afterwards.

Works like a charm!
posted by JenThePro at 1:58 PM on August 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

Seconding the rubber glove suggestion. It also works ON THE CAT but the cat might not like it. One glove can be reused infinitely.
posted by tofu_crouton at 2:01 PM on August 19, 2019

Specifically the tight latex gloves that doctors wear, not, say, larger cleaning gloves.
posted by tofu_crouton at 2:02 PM on August 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Cats get toxoplasmosis when they eat undercooked (raw) meat or from infected water. The odds of that eating processed cat food and drinking indoor water is... very, very low. Like a non-issue. Don't have the cat eat birds/mice so basically don't let it outdoors unsupervised. But that also means you could get it from undercooked meat. Not very likely at all though, don't eat undercooked meat while pregnant for many other reasons, I imagine.

For my cat(s), I got high litter boxes that they can't kick litter out of and have lids (sometimes I use the lids). It cuts down on anything leaving the box except some litter being tracked. A mat can take care of that or sweeping daily.

Getting fur off things is easy with that same brush other people recommended. Lightly run it along a surface and it will pick up all the fur without wrecking the fabric. I run mine along my couch where my cat tends to lay. In cleaning this weekend I realized I had those little fun gloves that act like brushes... not super effective vs. my regular brush but would probably work ok getting fur off objects.

As far as cleaning, I set a timer on a weekend day and usually just keep going past that. ADD makes me ping pong between 10 tasks until they're all accomplished or I end up hyperfocusing on cleaning a random object that I haven't even used in years and should probably just get rid of. I try to pick up one area per day when I get home from work.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 2:02 PM on August 19, 2019

We've had a lot of luck using a brush like this (and I think I got it based on a Metafilter recommendation, too). It's great for harder surfaces like furniture, not so much blankets/clothes that will move around. It gets a lot of use at our place on the couch/bench cushions in particular.

Another absolute must for us has been a large HEPA air filter running 24/7. Vacuuming the amount of hair it traps at the front intake (before even reaching the main filters) is a horrifying, satisfying task.
posted by erratic meatsack at 2:11 PM on August 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

Yeah, brush them, especially when it's warm. Literally once a day if you can. A moist cloth will also take up fur from things it otherwise clings to, including the cat itself. One of mine prefers this to being combed.
posted by aspersioncast at 2:25 PM on August 19, 2019

I swear by my Magik Brush, and I also have a vacuum attachment which has the same red stuff on it that picks up everything.
posted by essexjan at 2:26 PM on August 19, 2019

A Dyson vaccuum with a Hepa filter, and a Furminator brush for the kitties. You can actually over brush with one, so make sure you don't thin out their coats too much! (Ask me how I know. :/) The Furminator almost eliminated shedding on my Very Sheddy Turkish Angora and Ragdoll cats. It also works on my Belgian Shepherd, who could easily outcompete the cats for shed fur by many orders of magnitude, relative size notwithstanding.
posted by ananci at 2:58 PM on August 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Just to reiterate: I'm really not that worried about toxoplasmosis. It's possible that my cats have had it before since there have been periods when they went outside and they have killed mice. But my understanding is that they generally only shed it for about two weeks after exposure and we are well and truly past that.

I'm more unsure about how worried I have to be from just any potential ickiness from cross contamination. Should I be concerned about germs pretty much all over the house? Since starting to think about trying to conceive, I feel more anxious about cleanliness. We vacuum or sweep up any stray litter, but unless I mop the floor is probably pretty germy.

Note: we don't wear our street shoes in the house, so the cats and their litter are the biggest potential source of gross floors.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 3:40 PM on August 19, 2019

Another vote for the Furminator brush. It’s amazing how much fur you collect—almost enough to build another cat!
posted by bookmammal at 4:34 PM on August 19, 2019

Seconding the rubber glove suggestion. It also works ON THE CAT but the cat might not like it. One glove can be reused infinitely.


I got a less fancy version of these kitty gloves for my first cat, and being loved on with them was her joy and delight. Once you get them to love the slicker bruch (they will!), they will love the kitty gloves. Also use the slicker brush backward on them. They'll resist, but keep at it and they'll accept and love that, too.

You can do a quick de-hairing of rugs by scraping your foot across the rug sideways if you are wearing a flat shoe like a Birkenstock.

The rubber glove trick really works well.
posted by jgirl at 4:38 PM on August 19, 2019

Here's a list of precautions from the Mayo clinic. In particular, people who may become pregnant don't clean litter boxes if there's anyone else available, and indoor cats don't eat raw meat, nor do people. It all sounds like a lot of trouble, but soon becomes just habit.

Prevention

Certain precautions can help prevent toxoplasmosis:

Wear gloves when you garden or handle soil. Wear gloves whenever you work outdoors and wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water afterward.

Don't eat raw or undercooked meat. Meat, especially lamb, pork and beef, can harbor toxoplasma organisms. Don't taste meat before it's fully cooked. Avoid raw cured meat.

Wash kitchen utensils thoroughly. After preparing raw meat, wash cutting boards, knives and other utensils in hot, soapy water to prevent cross-contamination of other foods. Wash your hands after handling raw meat.

Wash all fruits and vegetables. Scrub fresh fruits and vegetables, especially if you plan to eat them raw. Remove peels when possible, but only after washing.

Don't drink unpasteurized milk. Unpasteurized milk and other dairy products may contain toxoplasma parasites.

Cover children's sandboxes. If you have a sandbox, cover it when your children aren't playing in it to keep cats from using it as a litter box.

For cat lovers

If you're pregnant or otherwise at risk of toxoplasmosis or its complications, take these steps to protect yourself:

Help your cat stay healthy. Keep your cat indoors and feed it dry or canned cat food, not raw meat. Cats can become infected after eating infected prey or undercooked meat that contains the parasite.

Avoid stray cats or kittens. Although all stray animals need good homes, it's best to let someone else adopt them. Most cats don't show signs of T. gondii infection, and although they can be tested for toxoplasmosis, it may take up to a month to get the results.

Have someone else clean your cat's litter box. If that's not possible, wear gloves and a face mask to change the litter. Then wash your hands well. Change the litter daily so that excreted cysts don't have time to become infectious.
posted by SereneStorm at 6:08 PM on August 19, 2019

Seconding the HEPA filter. I got mine out of a storage unit I cleared out recently and it has made a significant difference in our home, just sitting there running quietly. It's a small $200 unit I bought years ago and I know you can get even tinier ones now. An allergic friend came over and lasted the whole day on her meds rather than a few hours.

If you're pregnant, you shouldn't be handling stray cats, but if you're looking for a cat and worried about T.gondii, adopt from a fostering situation where you can ask for screening first to make sure the cat has been past the exposure time. A pet shop/breeder isn't going to be better.

Basically, don't do cat litter at all. You should hand that chore over now. That's your highest risk, the rest are tiny tiny, and hey, compared to pregnancy, it's a small thing.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:59 PM on August 19, 2019

Muji makes a lint roller the size of a paint roller that is so far superhuman to all other lint rollers it’s almost unfathomable. Easy peel/easy tear paper, perfect degree of stickyness, and this cat owner’s secret weapon. Get a refill pack right away. Incredible for couches and blankets

Also the Dyson cordless vacuum for pet hair. It’s just so quick and easy to vacuum I find myself doing it constantly.
posted by wowenthusiast at 8:52 PM on August 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

We've had 3-4 cats for about the past decade, and in addition to what others have said re. brushing and lint rollers, I would say that using clumping litter and scooping *every day* (no exceptions!) is one of the most important things to get into a routine of doing. Basically, you want to minimize the potential for them to step in their own waste, thereby reducing risk of them tracking germs all over the house. (And the cats will thank you for it too - they have a very sensitive sense of smell).
posted by aecorwin at 12:23 PM on August 20, 2019