cleaning tips and tricks thread!

[Godwit]

hey everyone! as a new bunny owner, i have to say i was never expecting such a small animal to create such big messes! i was prepared but in the last few weeks of bunny ownership i have had to alter my cleaning routine more than once to accomodate myself, my bunny, and my roommates. while searching through the forums for advice i noticed there's no single thread dedicated to a wide range of cleaning tips. so i thought instead of new bunny owners having to sift through threads about vaccuums, rugs, lint rollers, routines and "hacks" we could put them all into one place! it's much easier to search a topic and click through a couple pages to find what you're looking for than to keep hitting the back button and retyping your search to hopefully get more results.

Anyway, that being said, i am not a messy person, but i'm not a clean freak either. i can go a few weeks without vaccuming my carpet and almost never dust, my LEAST favorite chore is laundry and before i got Ralphie it was not uncommon to see my clean laundry dumped onto my floor on laundry day insead of folded and hung in my closet lol

. now, my clothes no longer live on my floor, my carpet gets vaccumed at least every other day, and the cage is swept and litter box dumped once a day, cleaned with vinegar-water once every three days. i've also found that it might be a good idea to invest in a new (bigger) trash can because rabbits produce a LOT of garbage between garbage days that i can barely keep up! and that's just stuff i know needs to be done.

i live in a two bedroom apartment with an engaged couple as roommates who are self-described clean freaks who don't seem to notice any of their own messes but are more than happy to text me "there's hay in the living room!!" only to find literally two pieces right by my bedroom door. i have yet to figure out how to prevent tracking hay around even though my hay bin is literally on top of my cage. i don't get it! so my question is how do you cut down on hay flying everywhere? and also post your favorite or most creative life-saving cleaning product/routine!

[justwildbeat]

This isn’t a revelation but I bought a handheld mini vac solely to clean my bun’s living area. It’s handy for picking up bits of hay and cardboard shreddings.

[jerseygirl]

Fantastic thread idea!
I’m looking forward to reading people’s tips on various things.

i’ve also found that it might be a good idea to invest in a new (bigger) trash can because rabbits produce a LOT of garbage between garbage days that i can barely keep up! and that’s just stuff i know needs to be done.

I know! I fill up my kerbside. green waste bin with litter.

Well this is one thing I’ve shared before. I have a vacuum attachment for barrel style cleaners that really helps prevent the hose getting blocked. The debris only travels up the 1st length of pipe and collects in receptacle. It’s easy to remove an empty frequently.
I still get some blockages at the connection but its a lot easier to unblock here then it would a blockage in the flexible hose.

Hay containment is always a challenge. That stuff hutches a ride on everything too!
Some simple things that help reduce hay travelling is deep litterbox (if hay is in the box) and cage or pen shields. Like coreflute board (coroplast?) around the base.

Ages ago someone shared a super simple litterbox set up for helping contain hay etc. It was a litterbox secured inside a cardboard box. Ill see if I can find the photo.

[jerseygirl]

*I meant hitches, not hutches.

Ok, I found the pic.

[MissGabbster]

Here are some of my tricks I’ve picked up during the last few months with Ox.

• Have two vacuums!
A shop vac for picking up hay, poo, paper shreddings, wood shreddings, etc.
And a pet vacuum to follow up with to pick up the fur and any dust in the carpet.

• A spray bottle filled with a white vinegar/water solution (I don’t have an exact measurement). Despite the stench it is the best thing I’ve found so far to clean up any urine I find, especially in carpet! Of course with this, you might want to invest in some rabbit friendly essential oils to make cleaning a bit more pleasant on the nose.

• As mentioned above by jerseygirl, something to place the litter and hay will greatly reduce traveling poopies and hay. An old cage base (what I use), a cardboard box, or even one of those under the bed storage boxes would help with this.

• (Just one more from me, lol) Towels! Towels, fleece blankets, old sheets will help keep the carpet a lot cleaner. I’m currently using a towel in the old cage base to catch hay and stray poopies and make it softer on Ox’s hocks, and a towel under the mini maze haven. Once they start getting covered in hay or start looking dirty you can just shake them out outside and then throw them in the washing machine. I’m also thinking of adding a towel into the corner of the cage where he sleeps to catch pee dribs while I search for a suitable flat sheet.

It surprised me as well to learn just how messy these little critters were.

[Dobby]

I have found an old fashioned carpet sweeper to be the best investment I’ve made since getting my rabbits. I mean no frills, no electricity old fashioned. Something like this…

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/Quick-Clean-Carpet-Sweeper/1041310199?Keyword=carpet+cleaner

It is great at picking up hay, random poo and what ever else has made its way onto your carpet. It also grabs some dust and hair, but not a ton. Additionally, it’s incredibly light and easy to use, so can be pulled out for really quick cleans. It’s quiet and doesn’t freak out the rabbits. It also helps keep your vacuum from getting blocked by picking up the hay and bigger things that normally cause those blocks. And it’s cheap!

[Godwit]

love the cardboard box idea for the hay! Ralphie has a hay rack above his litter box but he tends to eat more hay if i leave a pile IN the box as well. the only thing is he moves the hay around and i wind up dumping a layer of hay with the litter when i clean
my need for a better trash can has grown, today Ralphie was doing some high-flying binkies and landed right in the wastebasket!

Dobby! Thanks for the carpet sweeper recommendation! I hate lugging my household’s giant, heavy, ancient vacuum to my bedroom to pick up stray messes on the carpet. And in case anyone didn’t know this money saving tip, bed bath and beyond is GREAT with accepting coupons. not sure if they’re accepted online, but in stores it could be expired and they’d still take them, multiple ones even.

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