Keeping A Tidy Home With Pets

As any pet owner knows, it can be hard to prevent your pet’s accessories from taking over your home – I know it’s probably nothing compared to children but I forever feel that I’m putting Maddie’s toys in the dining room only for her to promptly scatter them about the house again. Especially tennis balls – it’s rare for us to come back from a walk without yet another one and keeping the house tidy can feel like a losing battle. I LOVE interiors, I want my home to be sleek and beautiful when we finish renovating but worry that as an animal lover that may never happen.
All is not lost however – these clever storage solutions should help limit the clutter that comes with owning a pet AND keep a stylish-looking home at the same time.

Hide pet bowls away with a pull-out drawer
If you have a dog or a cat, having their bowls lying around is going to be a necessity. However, they’re not exactly the most attractive item to have cluttering up your living space and they’re not the most hygienic thing in the world either, which is especially a problem for households with curious toddlers.
A great way to hide away your pet bowls when they’re not being used is to install them in a pull-out drawer underneath your lower cabinets, such as this one showcased in Better Homes and Gardens. When it’s time to feed, the drawer can be opened and filled with food and water, and when your pets are done, the drawer can simply be closed, leaving them out of sight. If you’re planning on having your kitchen refurbished any time soon, talk to your kitchen designer about having one of these drawers fitted. We’re planning to build a new kitchen at some endless future point and will then convert our current kitchen into a utility room – perfect to keep all the pet paraphernalia tucked away!

Organise your pet food

If you have a number of pets and they all need different food, set up a system of well-labelled clear plastic boxes. This will allow you to see when you’re starting to run out at a glance, and as these containers will keep the food airtight, it will stay fresher for longer. You can also use several smaller boxes to organise portion sizes in advance, labelling them by day. Plastic Box Shop stocks a wide range of food storage boxes that are perfect for this.

Currently we have a huge sack of dog food in the cupboard under the stairs with a scoop in so that we know how much to serve at each meal but once we have a cat too we’ll definitely need a more organised system.

DIY cat climber
I’ve yet to convince Pete that having a cat is a good idea – I grew up with an animal menagerie of cats, dogs and hamsters, plus whatever else we adopted during school holidays from the school my Mum taught at and random strays from my Dad’s job as a conservationist. To me, having cats and dogs is a no-brainer and definitely non-negotiable, after all we have Maddie who is 50% part of the inspiration behind the blog name so Boo needs to join her sooner rather than later!

So I need to think about clever ways of keeping the cat entertained and prevent it from destroying the furniture and love the idea of these incredibly easy-to-make cat climbers. This project, as detailed by Haute Nature, is as easy as cutting some holes into a pair of cardboard boxes and sticking them together with glue and when the cat is out or having a rest, it can store all his toys. Perfect!

I’d love to here how you stop your furry friends from taking over your home, any top tips I should know about?

This is a collaborative post.

Follow me on Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

Click here to visit our webshop, DaisychainBaby.co.uk