4 Tips To Keeping Your House Fresh, Even With Cats

This post has been sponsored by Purina ONE. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. We love our Purina ONE Indoor Advantage cat food and hope you'll give it a try for your feline friends. :)

At the end of last month, T.J. and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. Ten. YEARS! That feels a little crazy. We took a short trip to Philadelphia for just one night and on our drive down to the city, we chatted about all of the things we've learned, done, seen, and loved. And one topic we got talking about, and therefore laughing about, was cats. Over the last ten years together, we've had up to four cats living with us at once—with a total of about 11 cats passing through. Many were strays that we let come inside for a while, and then found a new home for them.

But two are still with us today: Lola and Penny. Lola (the multicolored one) will turn 10 in August, so she's been with us our entire marriage! T.J. gave me Lola, and her brother Leo, as a birthday present six days after we settled on and moved into our home in 2009. And then there's Penny (the black and white one). If you've ever met Penny, then I don't even need to say more. She's... terrifying? But also kinda the best? 🤣She keeps things interesting to say the least.

With so many cats coming and going, I've learned a few things about how to keep a house feeling fresh, even with lots of cats, and I wanted to share those tips with you today.

1. Find food that they love and feed them on a schedule.

This one took us a while! We tried lots of different foods and eventually landed on Purina ONE® Indoor Advantage. Because nothing ruins the vibes (and rugs) in your house like cat barf, am I right? I was thrilled when we found a food that both Penny and Lola enjoyed. Feeding them on a loose schedule helped, too. We put a 1/4 cup each in their bowls first thing in the morning and then another scoop later in the evening. This way, they both finish everything and don't leave any extra to snack on during the day. My two favorite things, specifically about Purina ONE, is that it helps minimize hairballs and maintain a healthy weight for our cats. This is important to me because they're only outside less than half of the year. The rest of the year, they're indoors—sleeping on our radiators like little zombie cats.

We always get our Purina ONE at Target because let's be real, we don't go to many other places. Also, can we pause for a minute to look at how happy I am in this photo below? Target is my happy place. You can find Purina ONE at your local Target, along with everything else you need in your life. 😂

2. Use a pellet style litter box.

This is one tip that we adopted early on in our house. 🙌🏼 Our cats love laying on our couches, beds, and blankets, and that's fine with us. But you know what's not okay with me?! Find little pieces of that clay litter from their feet in between your sheets.

For the last nine years, we've used Purina's Tidy Cat's BREEZE Pellets and Pads and love them. It's such a great system and just so happens to be a Purina product, too!

3. Just commit and cut holes in your doors. 😂

Okay, okay. I know everyone can't do this! But! The general idea still holds true, which is this: if you plan to have cats for a long time, do whatever you need to do to keep your house feeling and smelling fresh. For us, that looked like cutting little cat doors into our basement and attic doors, thus allowing the cats to go up and down to their litter boxes without us having to leave the doors open all the time. It's made such a difference in the overall smell of our house and visually is so much nicer than having doors half open all the time.

So, maybe you rent a house or can't fathom jigsawing a hole in your doors! But do find what works for you. Perhaps it's a cat door just to your garage or a little shelf for them to climb on so they stay off your kitchen counters and feel like they've got their own space up high!

4. Washable and/or low pile rugs.

Like I mentioned above, few things are grosser than cat barf on your beautiful ivory shag rug. So, don't mess with that! The rugs in both June and Sunny's room are machine washable (which is perfect in a kid's room anyway!) and the rug in our bedroom is super low profile. They're much easier to vacuum and clean this way, therefore limiting the amount of cat hair we track around the house.

There you have it! My top four tips for keeping your house fresh, even with cats! What are your favorite ways to keep a fresh house?

We love our cats, even when they drive us nuts. They add so much life and personality to our home, and I love that our girls are really starting to enjoy them too. :)

Oh, P.S.! I also love to diffuse lemon and lavender to make the house smell extra good! I also have a little spritzer bottle I made with grapefruit and juniper berry oils, and I use that on our linens and rugs. Instant freshness!