Tips for Pet-Friendly Decorating
Keeping your home in good condition can feel like an ongoing challenge, especially for those with a furry family member or two. The good news is that there’s no need to spend all day cleaning - smart decorating can help to minimize the impact of pets, both on the interior and the exterior of the home. By taking on-board a handful of clever tips, you can keep your home looking tidier with less effort.
Keep Breakables out of Reach
Accidents happen, which is why valuables and breakable items should be kept out of reach whenever possible, especially while you’re sharing your home with animals. If you have enough storage space available, keeping your most precious belongings safe can be simple - all you need to do is store your things in a cabinet with securable doors, but if that isn’t an option, a chest of drawers or a basic box will do the job just as well.
Avoid Full-Coverage Carpeting
Having a pet typically involves opening your home to extra mess and dirt, and this reality can be made more or less inconvenient by your choice of flooring material. While there are plenty of benefits to carpeting, not least the comfort and relative inexpensiveness, it doesn’t make such a great option for animal lovers. Carpet has a tendency to absorb smells and dirt very effectively, which makes it difficult to maintain with a pet in the house, and depending on the style, it can also be easily destroyed by a set of sharp claws - all the more reason to stick with a hard, durable surface like concrete or tile.
Pick out Pet-Friendly Plants
Although the garden may not seem like a major area for consideration, it may be the most important of all, especially for those hosting potentially dangerous plant life. Even some of the most attractive plants can post a threat to animal wellbeing if they’re chewed or ingested, and cats, in particular, are often at risk in their own backyards, as common plants like azaleas and daffodils can be toxic. Fortunately, there is a number of pet-safe varieties, ranging from the common sword fern to the hardy, soil-free staghorn fern, so be sure to do some research before bringing home any new plants or animals.
Create a Designated Space
From the very early stages of your pet’s life with you, it’s important to impose strong boundaries, both in a behavioral and a physical sense. Physical boundaries encourage the development of a healthy relationship between you, and setting them can be as simple as giving your pet a special place in the house. Keeping a dedicated room for your pet or just a corner near the front door will not only help to establish a sense of ownership and belonging but also make it easier to keep the majority of the animal-borne mess at bay. Make sure you include all the essentials like a bed, toys, and for cats, a scratching post to keep their claws occupied.
Opt for Inexpensive Furniture
It may not be such a concern for owners of older pets, but while your pet is young, the furniture will likely become a prime target for chewing and scratching. Depending upon the value you place on your leather sofa or stained hardwood coffee table, you might consider storing them away somewhere safe for the first year of your pet’s life. Replacing them with cheap, second-hand pieces with little sentimental or monetary value could save you a great deal of stress and money over time, and especially during the training phase.
Choose Stain-Resistant Materials
Just as pets can pose a threat to any expensive, fragile items around your home, they can also make a mess of just about everything simply by bringing in dirt from the outside. The only thing better than cheap, pre-loved furniture is stain-resistant furniture, and clever fabrics like FibreGuard are growing in popularity for this very reason. Designed for ease of cleaning and made in materials that won’t leak chemicals into the atmosphere, these pieces of furniture may just be the ultimate addition to a pet-friendly home.
Color-coordinate
The idea of matching your fabric coverings to the color of your pet's fur might sound overreaching until you consider the amount of time and effort you could cut from your cleaning regimen. By color coordinating in such a clever way, you’ll find yourself worrying less about undetectable pet hair and instead of spending more energy on the more important things in life.
Your pets may not appreciate your home decor, but with a few clever design ideas, you can keep them happy and maintain a tidy house at the same time. Even so, on the days when the mess seems inevitable, remember that the pleasures of a tidy home cannot outweigh the joys of having an animal companion.
Author Bio:
Sofia is a passionate writer from Sydney. She also enjoys decorating houses and engaging in home renovation projects. That is why she loves sharing her experience and advice with other people through her writing. Besides this, she loves technology and gadgets which can help us get through a busy workday.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sofilockhart
