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karenfromknoxville

What's best to clean Kitty Litter on Hardwood floors?

karenfromknoxville
15 years ago

Hi,

Help! I'd like your recommendations on the best appliance to pick up kitty litter on hardwood floors. I have my cats' litter box in one bathroom and try to keep the excess litter in that room. But I still find kitty litter on the floor in other parts of the house. Since I have hardwood floors in the house and a marble floor in the master bath, I would like to keep the excess kitter litter to a minimum.

What kind of appliance would work best for this? I've tried electric brooms, dust busters, vacuum cleaners and the old broom and dust pan. Most seem to work well at first and then leave as much litter as they initially picked up (even after emptying or cleaning the filter). Any suggestions on how to keep the floors clean?

Thanks for your help!

Karen

Comments (14)

  • geguymw
    15 years ago

    A vacuum cleaner or even a broom and dust pan would work. What you have to do is keep up on the litter daily, so it does not make its way through the house. What is probably happening is that everyone is tracking it through the house, on their feet. Keep the area around the litter box cleaned up. Do you have a little cat litter box mat, for the cat? This helps them remove the litter from their paws, as they exit the box. They rub their paws over it.

    Vacuum cleaners and brooms do work. I would be curious what brand and model appliances did not work for you. A full sized vacuum cleaner will work, if used properly. Some uprights are not going to work well, if their brushroll cannot be shut off.

    A broom with very, very soft bristles will move the kitty litter to the dust pan better than other brooms.

  • lindac
    15 years ago

    I would vacuum and follow up with a dust mop spritzed with a very little bit of vinegar water.
    Linda C

  • karenfromknoxville
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Hi,

    Thanks for your help and suggestions. I've used a Black & Decker dust buster, a Dirt Devil electric broom, and a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner. A broom and dust pan seem to work best. But I don't think the broom had particularly soft bristles. I will try kitty litter mats. I never thought they worked but it's worth a try!

    Thanks again for your suggestions!

    Karen

  • kittiemom
    15 years ago

    We keep a mat in front of our litter boxes. I vacuum with a Miele Blue Moon, which does a great job getting the litter up.

  • arbisi
    15 years ago

    I use a bissell rechargable sweeper-works good on litter. I am in the process of switching all of our litter boxes to the new Tidy cat Breeze system. My 12 week old kitties did the switch with no problem. I got another system today for my older cats but I haven't seen them use it yet. I hope they like it so I won't have to deal with litter "grit" on my wood floors any longer.

  • karenfromknoxville
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Hi,

    Thanks for your help. What is the Tidy Cat Breeze System? I've tried that Litter Maid automatic litter box and find the noise it makes after the kitties use it, wakes me up at night and scares them!

    My kitties (2 brothers) are about 9 months old. They still "play" in the litter box. I'm hoping they out grow that. But in the mean time I'm worried about my parque floors that I just had refinished! I'll look into the Bissell rechargeable sweeper. When I looked at a Miele vacuum cleaner, it was very expensive and made the old method of broom and dust pan look a bit better! But I am planning to invest in some of those litter mats this weekend.

    Thanks for all your suggestions!

    Karen

  • arbisi
    15 years ago

    The bissell sweeper was really cheap-about $20.00 at target & is still going strong after a year. The Breeze system is kind of hard to explain so I have attached a link below.

    Here is a link that might be useful: breeze

  • fandlil
    15 years ago

    I would caution against using the self-clumping litter. I have read that vets think it's not a good idea because it gets stuck to cats' paws. Then they swallow some when they clean themselves.

  • stir_fryi SE Mich
    15 years ago

    Kitty litter can be so damaging to hardwood floors. I'd suck it up with a hose attachment to avoid "scraping" it across the floor.

    I bought the Tidy Cat Breeze system two weeks ago and my boy (2 years old) has yet to use it for #1 or #2.

  • wiredgirl
    15 years ago

    Is there anywhere else you could move it? When my sister moved into her new house there was a kitty door into the basement and I told her how lucky she was to have it down there. Then thought, hello, why don't I have mine down there??? I put in a kitty door and now it is in the basement. My life has never been the same, I'm not kidding.

  • bbagnall2001_yahoo_com
    12 years ago

    The litter is all over my hard wood floor ,it looks like dry white paint spots. Its really hard to get off. I used a scrub brush and it wouldn't even come off.
    It seems that some litter is worse than other litter.
    I guess you get what you pay for. I found the Tidy litter the one that has lots of rocks in is not good. I have tiny rocks all over the place. So I Changed the litter to more of a sand mixture.
    Any suggestions.

  • Nancy Moore
    6 years ago

    I use Worlds Best. It is made from corn. I tried the Tidy Breeze system. I liked the urine system but I couldn't stand the poop smell. There is no way for the cat to effectively bury the feces, so you have to clean it immediately. Cat didn't like it either.

  • Julianna Baumgartner
    3 years ago

    I literally tried to do so many of these solutions that I could find all over the internet and none of them worked for me at least. My cat used to be the type that would kick her litter out of the box and then pee on it and that's why it was on my floor in the first place.

    I ended up just buying a thin hard bristled scrub brush and Pledge Gentle Wood Floor Cleaner from Walmart and I got down and scrubbed it out of the grains of my wood floor. It got it all out though! This may mess with the longevity of the floor but honestly I am in an apartment and I just need the stain to be gone. I guess if you need to you can get wood refinishing polish but I don't even think the apartments here got finished in the first place. Lmao. I hope this can help someone!