What are the best ways to keep...
What are the best ways to keep cats off outdoor furniture? Natural repellents, such as smells cats hate, keep uninvited felines off your chairs and loungers.
Manufactured cat repellents, ultrasonic fences, aluminum foil, mothballs, and double-stick tape all provide alternative ways to keep cats off cushions.
You can also provide alternative hang-outs for cats, store your furniture, or train the offending cat to avoid the chairs.
I've thoroughly researched the smells, sounds, and tactile sensations that repulse cats. I've distilled my findings to keep sharp cat paws from snagging your patio cushions.
This article provides everything you need to keep cats off your outdoor furniture. I offer organic and synthetic options, as well as behavioral modifications sure to keep your kitty from ruining your cushions and chair legs.
Cats have powerful senses of smell. Use their noses against them. Spraying outdoor furniture and the surrounding areas with certain scents repels kitties.
A small spray of a repulsive scent goes a long way. Cats detest the smells of peppermint, vinegar, lavender, and cinnamon. Felines actively avoid these smells, so spraying them on your chairs and lounges keeps kitties away.
Fill a spray bottle with equal parts vinegar, water, and liquid hand soap. Adding a little lavender or cinnamon makes the spray more palatable to your nose.
Avoid essential oils, however. Essential oils are hazardous to kitties.
Cats hate the smell of citrus. So putting lemon, orange, or lime peels around your furniture helps repel cats and fills the space with citrus fruit's pleasant and clean aroma.
Make sure to replace the peels regularly. The rinds rot, and the smell quickly goes from clean and fresh to unpleasant.
Mixing up a simple, cat-repellent potpourri keeps kitties away without hurting them. The smell ensures their little paws stay off your furniture cushions.
The potpourri also adds a pleasant smell to the sitting area. Mix the peels of lemon, tangerine, lime, and oranges with citrus sprays.
Lemon juice, water, and citronella oil help draw out the smells in dried peels.
Plants provide an organic and aesthetically pleasing way to keep unwanted kitties away. Even better, the plants often attract pollinators, like hummingbirds and butterflies. You can help your garden grow while maintaining your patio furniture.
The following plants all repel cats:
Pennyroyal
Lemon thyme
Geraniums
Lemongrass
Rue citronella
This keeps your cat away from your furniture to avoid what it perceives as a potential threat. Most synthetic cat repellents last for around 24 hours. They require daily application until your cat is conditioned to avoid the scent.
Some of the best cat-repellent sprays on the market are:
Ultrasonic fences work best for those hoping to keep cats and other uninvited visitors out of their yards.
Motion triggers these devices to create a high-pitch tone. When a cat crosses the ultrasonic perimeter, the noise irritates them and sends them running.
The ultrasonic barrier requires virtually no upkeep. Unlike sprays that need to be reapplied or plants that need to be cared for, you only need to set up the fence and then forget it.
Aluminum foil provides a quick, easy alternative using something most of us have in the house. Cats don't like the sound or feel of aluminum foil.
Putting a thin layer on your furniture will repel cats. This is a particularly good option during colder months when you won't use furniture too frequently. Otherwise, you'll need to remove the foil every time you sit and replace it after you go inside.
Put your leftover mothballs to good use. Zip them inside the furniture cushions. Cats don't like the smell, and it escapes through the material.
You'll also have to smell the mothballs, so keep that in mind before opting for this treatment. Also, never leave the mothballs where the cat can ingest them.
Stick to PDB mothballs, as they are less toxic. Naphthalene mothballs are highly toxic. Curious animals besides the neighborhood stray may want to chow down on your mothballs.Dogs, in particular, like to eat them, so be careful using them as a deterrent.
Cats hate the feeling of sticky things against their paws. So putting a layer of double-sided tape around the base of your furniture or along the legs can help deter cats from climbing onto your chairs and lounges.
Worried about a particularly jumpy cat completely bypassing the floor or legs? You can put tape on one side of a chair's cushion and flip it over when you want to sit on it.
Don't use any tape stronger than double-stick tape. The adhesive needs to be mild. Strong glues can hurt a cat's paws.You don't want to hurt the cat simply to cause enough irritation to keep them off your chairs and loungers.
Sometimes the best way to keep cats off furniture is to offer a better option. This option may not work for uninvited strays. However, personal pets or welcome guests may just want their own place to hang out.
Consider providing a cat-specific cushion. Offering your cat their own space may keep your feline friends from hopping on your patio furniture.
Adding a cat tree gives your furry buds somewhere to climb and lounge. Also, offering cats something more appealing than the patio furniture helps protect your cushions.
Let's be honest; there are plenty of reasons beyond cats to store outdoor furniture inside when you're not using it.Rain, snow, and cold can all have deleterious impacts on furniture cushions. Wet upholstery develops mold and mildew.
Storing your chairs and lounges in a garage, shed, or other indoor location prevents unwanted animal interference and weather damage.
If the main cat attacking your furniture is your fuzzy friend, train them to stay off the chairs and lounges. This method only works for cat owners with plenty of time.
Whenever you see your kitty approaching the furniture, spray them with water. Cats generally hate getting wet and will be put off by the moisture. This is a form of conditioning.
If you spray your cat every time they approach the furniture, they'll associate jumping on the cushions with getting wet and take the necessary measures to avoid getting spritzed.
This requires time and consistency. The negative reinforcement needs to be consistent for a few days so that kitties believe that they'll get sprayed every time they go for the furniture.
Cats can cause extensive damage to outdoor furniture. The tips and advice in this article provide natural, synthetic, and behavioral options for keeping unwelcomed kitties away from cushions.
Many basic household items use a cat's own sensory aversions to repel them from the furniture. You have all you need to keep kitties on the floor if you have citrus rinds, mothballs, aluminum foil, or double-stick tape.
Now that you know how to keep those cats off your furniture, choose your weapon and get to cat-proofing!
Spring Nee is an outdoor furniture expert with 18 years of experience.
She has extensive experience in outdoor design, including choosing furniture materials, following trends, and adding useful elements.
As a thought leader in the outdoor furniture industry, Spring has been a regular contributor to various blogs, magazines, and design forums
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