Planning your new kit home and want to make it as pet friendly as possible? Our furry friends are part of the family, so here’s 7 top ideas for making your kit home as comfortable as possible for your best friend.
1. Start at your pet’s eye level
Our experience around the home is very different to our pets. Understand their point of view, get down on all fours and look around the home (you might want to close the curtains if you’ve got nosey neighbours). What dangers are obvious? You might need to go from room to room, and consider higher up areas as well, particularly if you have a cat that likes to climb.
Be aware of the hazards
Common sense prevails, so look for the following types of pitfalls that might harm your pet:
- Strangulation Hazards: Consider long, trailing curtain cords, loops of cord, cables etc.
- Electrocution Hazards: Unplug unnecessary electricals, ensure cables are bedded down flush to the floor, use plugs for unused power points and remove or cover exposed wires
- Choking and suffocation: This can be innocuous as a plastic bag or anything ropelike that forms a loop, like a cord.
2. Make space for your pet
Most pets will seek out the same spots to be comfortable in. A warm spot in the sun, a cool spot on the tiles, and safe places to fall asleep in without getting squished by their human housemates. You can take control of this by actively designing spaces that your pet will feel comfortable. Homes to Love has a number of great space ideas for pets, including:
- Dog beds beneath cupboards
- Mud rooms or dog showers in the laundry
- Cat towers
- Litter cabinets
Creating purpose built spaces for your pet will make their home like safer and more comfortable and protect your furniture as well.
3. Food and medicine
Pets are inquisitive, and some are quite ingenious when it comes to tracking down tasty morsels left lying about.
Store away supplies
If you own a cat, the best policy is to keep all food safely stored in sealed containers. Many common food items are toxic to felines, and their ingenuity and agility means the kitchen fruit bowl is rarely out of reach.
Dispose of waste
Food scraps should also be kept behind closed doors and removed to outdoor garbage disposal as quickly as possible. Larger dogs in particular have the strength and intellect to potentially learn how to open a free standing bin (or just knock it over). Minimise the risk (and mess) by keeping garbage out of sight and out of mind.
Safety with medicine
Just like with children you want to keep prescription and over the counter medicine safety locked away in a cabinet. While many medications won’t smell particularly appetising to a cat or dog, your pets naturally curious mind could lead to disaster if they can gain access to pharmaceuticals around the home.
4. Think flooring
Tiles are the most pet friendly flooring you can get for your home. Ceramic tiles are resistant to craw scratches, doggie stains and just about anything your pet can throw at them. In the summer, they’re also a cool place to nap. Some other good options include:
- Painted concrete
- Terrazzo
- Brick
- Hardwood
Keep in mind that bigger dogs with large claws can scratch wood flooring, and as your pet ages you might need to get them special booties if your flooring is slippery (polished concrete or terrazzo). If you absolutely must have carpet, use low pile. DIY Network recommends modular carpet so individual panels can be removed in case of stain or accident.
5. Lock away your keepsakes
Fine china, heirlooms, fragile decorative items and anything not meant to withstand even a small knock or fall should be safely packed or locked away. Murphy’s Law applies. If you leave something out, there’s a good chance your pet could do it some damage. It’s not only the loss of personal items you need to worry about either. Broken crockery and glass can harm your pet, doubling down on the disaster.
6. Blend soft furnishings to pet colour
This handy little tip comes from DIY Network. They recommend matching anything from carpets to towels and blankets to the colour of your pet’s fur. It’s a practical choice that will help hide stray hair and also make the home a little more aesthetically pleasing.
7. Create and customise from scratch
There’s no limit to the way you can customise your home to make it more pet friendly, but if you’re building a new home with Kithome, we can make it even easier. Dog door in the laundry? A special place under the stairs? Talk to our design team and see how we can customise your new home to suit every family member. Even the furry ones. Speak to one of kit home consultants to find the best way to customise your home to be pet friendly.
Still unsure what kind of home will suit you and your pet? Take our quiz to find the best home for you, or take a virtual walk-through of one of our homes.
The post 7 Ways To Make Your Kit Home Pet Friendly appeared first on Kitome.
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8230377 http://ift.tt/2qEhUdj
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment