It's okay to be honest here with you all, right? So, let me be honest when I say I hate when guests enter someone's home and complain about the pets that live there. That's not to say I'm inconsiderate of allergies and things of that nature, but the pets that live within are members of the household. I refuse to lock Courage up in a room because someone doesn't want her to rub on their legs or pitter patter around.

With that being said, Courage's bathroom is upstairs - which also equates to being the guest bathroom.  So how do we manage to keep both our guests and Courage happy? We use a few tricks that are mostly nonsensical, but may be so "common sense," they're easy to overlook.

We have three rooms upstairs - Andre's office, our guest room/my office/reading space, and the bathroom - which mostly belongs to Courage. We typically leave the doors closed to the office and guest room unless they're in use, for a few reasons. They can get a little warm upstairs (heat rises, ya know) and also to prevent Courage from tracking litter into the carpet of those bedrooms. Hardwood would definitely be more ideal, but rentals come with fewer options, and yes, oftentimes carpet.



For the guest room

Keeping the guest room litter free is obviously important - especially to those guests who are pet-free and may be uncomfortable with a pet-friendly household. Other things important when it comes to a guest room that provides a happy environment for friends and family include making sure they have the things they need for an enjoyable visit. Including a welcome tray is the perfect gesture.

Things we included in our welcome tray are:

• a heavy duty lint roller
• bottled water
• face wipes
• travel-sized toiletries like shampoo & conditioner, hairspray, lotion, fragrance, toothbrush/toothpaste/floss, shave cream & disposable razor, and mini sample makeup
• feminine products
• fresh flowers
• jewelry tray
• fresh towels
• the wifi password

Also set up in our guest room is a desk and chair, and a rolling cart of books!









For the bathroom

It can be tough to keep a bathroom with a litterbox clean - especially without one of those fancy litterbox hideaways crafty people tend to make. Our upstairs bathroom is fairly small, so there's just enough room to squeeze the litterbox between the toilet and tub. The biggest thing is lots of sweeping and mopping to keep the floor as clean as can be. We've released having bath mats aren't incredibly functional in Courage's bathroom, as those tend to pick up litter more than anything else. Courage is incredibly furry, so she tends to throw out litter as she jumps out of her litterbox, but no biggie - just keep it clean in there. We also tend to wipe down the sink a lot, because if she jumps up there, guess what? More stray litter.












Luckily, the stray litter (and actually changing the litterbox) is our biggest worry. Thanks to Purina^Ⓡ New TIDY CATS^Ⓡ Free & Clean™ Unscented Clumping Litter from Target, odors are locked away by odor-absorbing activated charcoal and TidyLock^Ⓡ Protection. TIDY CATS Free and Clean litter also clumps strong which is so important to us because we use nifty sifting litter liners, so the clumps really make clean up and litter changes a breeze. Since it's available at Target, make sure to pick up some goodies for your kitty friends and your human friends - they sure do have everything you need there! (Don't we all know it? Haha.)