Pet-Friendly Tips to Protect your Home for Future Resale
Photo Courtesy of www.calxibe.com
Spring is here and so is puppy and kitten time! Getting your home ready and safe for your new pets is key to keeping your home looking good and providing a happy, healthy home for your pet. Pet proofing your home will not only give you peace of mind, but will also help preserve your home’s value when you are ready to sell.
Preparing your Home for a New Furry Friend:
- Remove any destructible objects on low shelves or coffee tables.
- Start by inspecting your home from your pet’s eye level. Look for choking, strangulation, electrocution, and suffocation hazards. Things like electrical cords, and curtain ties.
- Do not leave human foods or medications where pets can get into them.
- Buy a tight lid for all of your trash cans, or place trash in a cabinet, out of your pet’s grasp.
- Keep your toilet lid down to eliminate any potential drowning hazard for small pets.
- Secure window screens to prevent pets from falling out.
- Properly store or lock up hazardous substances such as: Home Cleaning Products, Pesticides, Fertilizers and Antifreeze.
- Make sure any indoor plants are pet friendly, some common toxic plants include: Lilies, Amaryllis, Poinsettia, Mums, and Aloe Vera.
- Foods that are toxic to your pets include: Alcohol, Chicken and Turkey Bones, Nutmeg, Apples, Chocolate, Onion, Apricots, Coffee, Peaches, Avocados, Dairy Products, Pears, Baking Powder, Fatty Foods, Plums, Baking Soda, Garlic, Potatoes, Broccoli, Grapes, Raisins, Cherries, Macadamia Nuts, and Yeast.
Preparing your yard:
- Make sure your pets are protected against fleas and ticks.
- If you live near a busy road consider installing an invisible fence to protect your pet from traffic.
- Clean up pet waste as soon as possible.
- If you have a pool keep it fenced in.
- Check to make sure you don’t have any toxic plants in your landscape. Visit the ASPCA Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants database for more information.
Pet Food Considerations:
- Store leftover wet food in your refrigerator.
- Store dry food in its original bag within a clean, food-grade plastic container.
- This protects food bought in bulk from insects, rodents, and any dyes or additives that can leach in over time from plastic containers not designed for food.
Pet-Friendly Design to Consider if you are Updating your Home:
- Flooring: Choose flooring that can stand up to scratches, and is easy to maintain and clean. Consider choosing tile, linoleum, hardwood or laminate flooring. Laminate floors are great because they cost less and are more scratch-resistant than wood. Instead of wall-to-wall carpet consider using area rugs. Pick out machine-washable area rugs.
- Walls: Use washable semi-gloss paint in rooms that your pet will spend most of their time. Hang any wall decorations high enough so they are out of reach.
- Windows: Don’t use curtains that pool on the ground or have decorative tassels and long cords. Pets can get caught in these or ruin them.
- Furniture buying tips: Match fabric to your pets fur; consider buying washable slip covers; regularly clip your pets nails if you own leather or vinyl furniture; keep in mind that patterned and tweed fabrics will disguise pet hair better and that leather and ultra-suede fabrics are easy to clean off and don’t show as much wear.
Ways to maintain and preserve your home from pet damage:
- Regularly clip your pets nails to reduce scratch damage.
- Frequently groom your pet to reduce the amount of pet hair on your furniture.
- Clean any pet stains as soon as possible so they don’t set in.
- Use products like Odor Logic Clean Away or Odor Logic Oxy Quick.
- Vacuum twice a week with a vacuum designed especially to pick up pet hair – Dyson offers a vacuum specifically for pet owners.
By keeping these tips in mind, it will save you and your REALTOR a lot of time and money when preparing your home to sell. Feel free to contact us at (518) 690-0011 for more information on this topic. If we don’t have the answers, we’ll get them for you!
