As much as you love your pets, its totally understandable that you don’t love the mess that can come with pet ownership. If you like having a clean and organized home, the challenge is keeping it clean and organized once your pet enters the picture. Good news is there are some awesome solutions for keeping a clean home even with pets. Things like pet supply storage options, making sure everything has a designated spot, and investing in useful pet products will make your life as a pet owner that much better.
And when you’re happier, your pet will be too!
This list of ways to clean and organize your home includes things like pet toy storage containers, ideas for keeping your pet, home surfaces, and even air, clean, and ways to organize your pet supplies to keep items out of the way but still very accessible.
Jump to a section:
- Dog paw washer
- Dog toy basket
- Hanging pet organizer
- Couch covers
- Lint roller
- Robot vacuum
- Pet food container/feeding station
- Pet Crate Furniture Combo
- Bathroom shelf for pet cleaning products
- Dog beds that double as rugs
- Pet to-go bag
- Air purifier
- Entryway pet supply organizer
- Pet grooming/supply tote
- Smart litterboxes
1. Dog Paw Washer
Getting your dog some outside time is crucial for their health and well-being. But no matter where you live – in the city, the country, or even if you mostly just use your own backyard for their outdoor adventures – dirty paws are pretty much guaranteed.
Sometimes that might mean tracking some dust and dirt into the house, other times it might mean full-on muddy paw prints in your kitchen. Either way, consider getting a paw cleaner to help keep your house and your four-legged friend sparkly clean.
Paw cleaners are simply paw-sized cups that have rubber bristles around the inside. You put your pet’s paw into the cup and scrub it around a little bit, then dry their paws off. All done! It’s a super-easy way to help keep your floors (and even furniture, if you have a couch potato) much cleaner, longer.
There are even some paw cleaner cups that come with lids, so you can bring them with on car rides to clean your pet’s paws after they spend some time on the trails with you.
2. Dog Toy Basket
If you have a lot of dog toys underfoot you might want to get a dog toys basket to keep them all in. You could even use it as a training opportunity and teach your dog to put their toys away. Toy baskets aren’t just for the dogs, though. Any beloved pet might have a few knick-knacks that could use a dedicated spot.
There are tons of cute storage options for pet toys and supplies. Here’s a little list to help you to decide which organization option is best for you and your pet:
a) Can your pet toy storage be open and accessible, or does it need to close/lock?
b) Will your beloved critter tear into something like a basket or fabric container? Should you get something more solid?
c) How big are the toys/how many toys are there – do you need a big or small storage bin?
After answering these questions, all that’s left is for you to go forth and find a cute and practical storage container for all your pet toys.
3. Hanging pet organizer
If you have pets you probably have lots of pet-related accessories, and you’ll want a good place to store those accessories. If you don’t create a designated spot for your pet accessories and tools, they’ll probably end up in random places around your house. That makes your space cluttered, and makes it hard to keep track of the tools you need for your pet.
The pet tools could include things like leashes, food and water bowls, collapsable dishes, doggy bags, treat bags and more. Whatever you have for your pet that needs its own place out of the way.
There are lots of different types of organizers you could use for your pet accessories, including handing pet organizers, and over-the-door organizers.
4. Couch covers
If you have a four-legged couch potato in your home, furniture covers could be your new favorite pet accessory. As much as you and your pet may love snuggling up on the couch or a favorite chair, you probably don’t love the cleanup. Furniture covers can help make cleanup super easy by allowing you to simple remove the cover and toss it in the washer. They also provide extra protection against the damage that pets can do to furniture.
5. Lint roller
For daily pet hair cleanup you’ll want a good lint roller. This essential cleaning tool for pet owners is well-known for being a go-to solution that removes pet hair from all sorts of places, including furniture and clothing. The standard lint roller is sticky and has pull-away sheets that you toss in the trash once they’ve collected their fill of pet hair.
A second (and arguably better) kind of lint roller for pet hair is the reusable lint roller. Reusable lint rollers collect unwanted pet hair in a compartment that makes it easy for you to gather up the hair and toss it, instead of tossing a lint roller sheet.
6. Robot vacuum
As a pet owner, you know you need to vacuum your home fairly often to keep rogue pet hair under control, and you’ll want a vacuum that can handle pet hair for that – there’s a whole list of them here – but wouldn’t it be nice to have a little assistant to help keep your home (more or less) pet hair free?
That’s where a trusty robot vacuum comes in. We have a list of robot vacuums that you may want to consider for the task here. Robot vacuums move about your home autonomously to take care of pet hair every day, so you don’t have to break out the big pet hair vacuum as often.
Roomba is probably the most well-known robo-vac on the market, but there are lots of Roomba alternatives if you’re looking for them.
7. Pet food container/feeding station
When it comes to feeding your pet you probably have a bag or two of pet food and some feeding dishes laying around. Like all your other pet-related items, giving your pet food stuff its own place makes life easier and keeps your home clean and organized.
A pet feeding station gives you a place for your dog/cat food, and a place for the food bowls. You can find feeding stations that have food containers that you’ll be able to remove for easy cleaning and feeding trays that pull out for meal times. These compact pieces of functional pet furniture can make pet ownership that much easier.
8. Pet Crate Furniture Combo
Having a crate for your pet can be extremely useful, from training to just giving them their own space to hang out. The only issue is… A crate can be large, ugly, and in the way. If you want to have a crate for your pet, you might want to invest in a crate that doubles as a piece of functional furniture.
With a piece of useful furniture that doubles as a crate, you won’t feel like you’re sacrificing precious home space to a big cage-looking thing. Instead, you can have something that adds to the beauty and function of your living space and gives your pet their purrfect little hangout spot.
The types of furniture pet crates vary from tv stands to end tables, to general pet stations.
9. Bathroom shelf for pet cleaning products
You probably have plenty of stuff for you in your bathroom cabinets, under the sink, etc. Since keeping your pet clean is an essential part of keeping your home clean, it’s worth taking the time to clear out a space in your bathroom that is dedicated to pet hygiene products.
Your pet shelf might include:
- Pet shampoo
- Pet conditioner
- Pet toothpaste & toothbrush
- Pet brushes
- Pet medical products
10. Dog beds that double as rugs
If you have pets you probably have at least one pet bed laying around somewhere. Maybe you have a great little spot for your pet bed, but if you’re having a hard time figuring out where to place the pet bed so it’s out of the way, this could be your solution:
A pet bed that looks like a rug:
These pet beds mimic rugs and have padding that makes a super comfy spot for your best friend to stretch out and have a snooze. Because of the padding, they are thicker than a normal rug but still blend in more than your standard pet bed.
11. Pet to-go bag
If you like to bring your pet on adventures, no matter if its a dog, cat, rodent, or reptile, you should create a pet go-bag.
A go-bag for your pet has all your pet’s travel essentials in it, ready to go at a moment’s notice, so you don’t have to worry about leaving anything behind on your next adventure.
Things you could include in your pet’s go-bag:
- The bag itself (a backpack or tote that closes)
- Collapsible food and water bowls
- Travel pet water bottles
- Poop bags
- Sealable bags to put the poop bags in if you have to travel with them for a bit
- Pet backpack (if your pet can safely carry some items)
- Food container
- Treat bag
- Leash/harness
12. Air purifier
Air filters/purifiers help keep the air in your home clean and free of allergens like dust, dander, and… PET HAIR! There are literally thousands of air purifiers out there to choose from, but this one from BLUEAIR receives high marks for its extra effective HEPASilent filtration.
It’s received excellent reviews from publications like Good Housekeeping and Consumer Reports – which specifically notes this air purifier’s ability to trap pet hair.
13. Entryway pet supply organizer
You know how we have coat racks and closets near our front door for all of our stuff that we need when we’re leaving the house? Well, why not create a space by the entryway just for your pet too? A little organizer by the front door (or somewhere else if it’s more convenient for you) that holds stuff like leashes, treats, doggy bags, and anything else you might use on the daily for your pet.
It’s an easy way to give your pet’s daily supplies a designated spot so you never have to wonder where their leash went again!
14. Pet grooming/supply tote
Earlier we mentioned designating a spot in your bathroom for pet hygiene items. Well, a little tote like this makes that idea even better. You probably won’t want to keep everything in here, but having a way to stash all of your various pet grooming supplies will help keep all of your items (like brushes, shampoo bottles, and pet towels) together.
Make a habit of putting all of your grooming items back in their place in the tote and you’ll avoid misplacing anything. That means you can spend a little extra on better grooming tools since you know you’ll keep them in good, usable condition for a long time to come.
15. Smart litterboxes
If your beloved pet happens to be one that uses a litterbox, you might want to consider investing in a pricey (but by most accounts, well-worth it) smart litterbox.
The main draw of the smart litterboxes is the fact that they are self-cleaning, so you don’t have to go digging around in the litter (ew) in order to keep your home clean and smell-free. This is one of the top-rated smart litterboxes on the market. It features a “waste drawer” and an app that tells you when the waste drawer is full, so you know when it’s time to dump it.
Still kinda gross, but much better than having to dig around in kitty little every day.
