by Alice Cat Expert | Friday, February 10, 2017 | Cat Tips, Catification
Catification doesn’t need to cost you a fortune, nor does it need to take a lot of time. You don’t even need to be super handy!
You just need to have some imagination…or the internet.
Instead of 10-minute-yoga, 10-minute-cuisine, etc, today I am going to show you, da ta!
10-minute-catification
Meet these two beautiful catstomers of mine – Piet and Raf, moved from Amsterdam to Dublin 2 years ago and have become one of my regulars ever since.
And they love boxes.
So their wonderful dad made them these…
See? Just cardboard boxes, some tape and voila!
An instant cat tree / house thingy!
There is really no excuse for you not to catify your house.
If you enjoy the convenience of having a cat, because they are more or less low maintenance (I said ‘more or less’ because they do wake you up at 3am and drop the most expensive things in the house), I do think it’s a responsibility in exchange to provide enough enrichment for the cats in the house, especially for indoor only cats.
As illustrated in this example, you don’t need a lot of money nor material nor skill nor time. You just need to do it! It takes 10 minutes.
And the bonus is…my son loves it too.
I don’t normally bring my son to jobs but these cats actually love children and they spend the hour playing with each other like you can see here.
Do you enjoy these catification ideas? Follow my blog!
Have you catified your house yet? If you want to show us your idea, please be in touch! I would love to hear from you.
by Alice Cat Expert | Saturday, January 21, 2017 | Cat Tips, Catification
Did you know there are lots of products at Ikea which are not meant to be for cats but make great cat products? They are reasonably priced and they will merge into your house decoration without screaming ‘cat stuff’! (Not that there is anything wrong with that!) Plus, since these items are not made for cats, it can serve other purposes too!
1. Step stools
Steps are great for cats who might have difficulty jumping up to their favourite windowsill or climbing up to the sofa or bed. Elderly cats, cats with arthritis or cats start to lose their sight will find these very helpful. Since these are not special cat stands, you can use these for other purposes! Getting the books on the top shelves? No problem!
BEKVÄM Step stool
MOLGER Step stool
BEKVÄM Stepladder
2. Childproof items
I don’t actually childproof for my human child. I started teaching him about safety since the moment he started to crawl. As a result, he managed to navigate the stairs since he was 10 months old. However, I do have a few childproof items at home for the cats!
PATRULL Window catch
Window catch will be particularly handy for people who live in apartment and worried about their cat jumping over the window.
PATRULL Multi latch
I use this for the fridge because my cat Fafa can open the fridge and steal everything in a few seconds. It can also be useful for other cabinets.
PATRULL Drawer/cabinet catch
Same as above, you might want to put this on food cabinet if you have a thief cat like I do.
PATRULL Fingerguard for doors
These are super useful in making sure to leave a gap for doors that you want your cat to have access to. e.g.. the room where they have their litter trays or their favourite room where their cat beds are, etc. These fingerboard will leave a big enough gap for your cat to push the door open and go through.
PATRULL Door stop
These could serve the same purpose as the fingerguard too, but I prefer the fingerguard because you don’t need to leave the door open forever with the fingerguard. With these, it takes more effort to remove them so to close the door. Not handy for places like bathrooms where you need to close a couple of times a day.
These make really cute cat beds!
Here are some examples of happy cats using these beds…
4. Shelves
Ikea’s various wall shelves are super handy for any catification projects you might have.
Like this one, for example. You can see you can use shelves with different length to suit the situation in your house. Plus, IF your cat don’t use it, you can always put books! (We always need a Plan B when it comes to cat stuff since they very often don’t like what we buy them! UGH!!!)
Yes, these square things…classic Ikea item. They are super handy to make a cat tree. The advantage of this is its versatility. If the cat is not using the square, you can always put books and other stuff. You can even change things up whenever you want!
Here are a few examples how you can catify these units.
A simple cat cave…
A personalised cat tree…
A complex cat tower with feeding area, steps, cat beds, cat litter, everything!
Don’t forget to check out many more cat projects using Ikea products on Ikea Hackers. If you type in ‘cat’ on the search, you will get 1950 results of cat related Ikea-hack projects! Some of the cat parents out there are really really creative! Check it out!
Have you got any Ikea item that you use for your cat? Comment below! I would love to see your idea!
