5 Ways to Make Sure Your Home Doesn't Smell Like a Cat

Because they take the time to groom their bodies, cats don’t smell as much as other animals. Still, if you don’t keep up with their grooming routine or you don’t clean their litter box as often as you should, the atmosphere in your home can quickly change, and not in a good way.

In this article, we’ve compiled a list of tips to help your home smell clean and fresh even when you care for a cat (or more).

How to Minimise Cat Odour in Your Home

Groom your cat regularly

While indoor-only cats don’t need to be cleaned or groomed as often as outdoor or partially outdoor ones, the truth is that even the cleanest pets can get dirty and can smell every now and then.

This is especially true for geriatric animals, for example, since many develop cognitive dysfunction and forget that they need to groom themselves every day.

Since cats aren’t crazy about taking baths, we recommend trying a Water Free Wash. Dry shampoos can be used on pets that have an innate hate for water, and most are quite effective at eliminating bad smells and removing the dirt from their coats.

Keep your home clean

Your floors, the back of your furniture, the area under your bed, behind your couch, and other such places can retain some of your cat’s body odours if they go investigating in those spots when you’re away for work.

Making sure that you vacuum, dust, and mop on a regular basis can help you manage the situation as best as possible.

While cleaning every day is recommended so that you don’t become overwhelmed, detailed cleaning should be done once every week or at least once every ten days, where you clean every nook and cranny of the rooms your cat spends time in.

Replace the litter as often as possible

Choosing the right type of litter is a challenge, especially because cats have preferences much like people do. The one you opt for needs to be eco-friendly, highly absorbent, and also safe to flush. The Rufus & Coco Zero Odour Natural Litter ticks all the boxes, and thanks to its charcoal content, it absorbs odours in a record amount of time.

The same goes for the Wee Kitty Bamboo Odor Control Litter, whose pellets clump fast and can absorb the ammonia scent from your cat’s urine in less than five minutes.

Changing the litter once every couple of days is probably the best piece of advice if you want to make sure that your home never ends up smelling like cat pee. To make your life easier, you can fit your litter box with our Wee Kitty Bio Elasticised Litter Tray Liners and pick up your cat’s waste as effortlessly as possible – and without risking touching it, either.

Replace your litter box

The majority of the litter boxes that you can buy these days are made of plastic, and while this is not a negative feature in any way, it can also complicate things.

The bottom of every litter box gets damaged sooner or later. If you’ve been a cat parent for some time, you know that cats try to hide their waste, so they scratch the plastic surface.

In time, those ridges can end up trapping unpleasant odours, no matter how often you brush and sanitise the litter box. Try to replace your cat’s litter box at least once every six months to prevent this from happening.

Manage accidents as soon as possible

Caring for a pet can be a little challenging sometimes, and accidents are a reality that every pet owner has to deal with. They can happen for various reasons. For example, if the cat isn’t neutered, they are more likely to mark their territory.

A senior cat might suffer from urinary or faecal incontinence or it could be the result of trauma caused by an accident.

Using an enzyme cleaner like our Wee & Stain Away will eliminate both the stains and the odour of these mishaps. There are no harsh or dangerous chemicals in its list of ingredients, and it works on all sorts of surfaces - whether hardwood floors or carpets.

Final thoughts

Aside from the tips we've listed, you can also try deodorising your floors on a regular basis, airing out your home every day, or replacing your filters - on both your air filtration system and your vacuum cleaner.

Sprinkling a bit of baking soda on top of your cat’s litter every now and then can help with minimising the scent of their waste. The scooper needs to be cleaned regularly, too, because it can retain odours just like your litter box.

Finally, if you need to cover up any odours, you can use things such as aroma diffusers or even scented candles - but make sure that they are always marketed as pet-safe. Cats don’t really tolerate perfumes and other artificial smells, and they don’t get along with essential oils, either, so you need to do your research before picking the right product.