How many TOYS does your CAT really need?
How many toys does your cat have: 10, 20, 100?
Do you find yourself tripping over your cat’s toys all the time, feeling like you live with a little toddler who just throws toy parties every day, and you’re the one who have to clean up?
Do you feel like you’re just wasting money getting more and more toys for your cat, but they only play with a selected few?
What if I told you that you cat doesn’t need ALL those fancy toys, and surely not as many?
WHAAAAT? 🙀
Stay with me, and I’ll tell you how I declutter our cat toy box and how I pick the most loved and most favorite toys of our kitties. I’ll also share with you what I do with the toys that I decided to let go.
If you prefer to watch vs read, here’s my YouTube video on this topic:
Let’s get to it! For me, decluttering is one of my most favorite and most liberating thing things to do.
What is decluttering?
Decluttering is the activity of removing things you do not need from a place, in order to make it more pleasant and more useful.
In our case, we will be decluttering a cat toy box, to make sure the toys that we keep are all safe (not falling apart or ripped) and of course, the most enjoyed by our kitties.
Part 1: What does your cat prefers in toys?
Before we start decluttering, let’s at first figure out what does your cat prefers when it comes to toys. Of course, only you know the answer to that question. For example, I know that our kitties like bouncy balls, small toys that they can hold in their mouths, and crinkly toys. They also enjoy automated toys, but they’re well, picky 😸
You can also ask yourself a question: is my cat a birder or a mouser? If your cat likes to catch things that are flying in the air, then they’re a birder. And if your cat prefers objects moving on a floor, then they’re a mouser. Most cats, in my opinion, are a mix of two, but this is just something that we can pay attention to in order to understand what their preferences are.
So right now, try to think about what toys your cat loves the most, what toys trigger their inner hunter, and write it down. And after that, let’s get into decluttering!
Part 2: Decluttering and going through toys
You can set a decluttering goal for yourself, for example:
Set a goal by quantity, like I want to keep a certain amount of toys
Set a goal by amount, like I want all toys to fit in a certain box that I set for this purpose
Or let yourself be creative and keep as many or as little as you want!
At the end of this decluttering process, you’ll have 3 piles:
1 – loves
Those are the toys that you’ll keep, because essentially, they’re your cat’s favorites!
2 – usable but non-loves
These toys can be donated to your local animal shelter, or you can also give them to a friend who has a cat. This way, you’ll make another cat very happy!
3 – non-usable
These toys can either be recycled, upcycled or if nothing else can be done, they will go in a trash bin.
I usually have a list of criteria before I start decluttering to make the process easier:
I always remove all toys that are ripped, broken or falling apart and pose a hazard to our kitties
If I see a toy that is not safe in some other way, maybe there are loose parts, or glitter, or plastic, I remove it too. I don’t usually buy toys like that, but sometimes we receive gifts of toys like that. I usually feel bad about throwing them away because it’s a gift, but I feel even worse about actually giving it to our cats. So let go of the guilt, and get rid of these toys, it’s ok! Those toys would usually go in a pile number 3 because even if it’s a new, but unsafe or potentially toxic/ dangerous toy for a cat, I would never give it to a shelter or let another cat play with it! I have a video about finding eco-friendly and non-toxic cat toys, feel free to check it out if you’re interested.
How often do I see my cat playing with it? It might be a pretty or an expensive toy, but if my cat doesn’t care about it and doesn’t find interesting, what’s the point in keeping it?
You know this famous decluttering question from Marie Kondo: Does this spark joy? Well, you can think about it this way: Does this toy spark joy in my kitty? If the answer is no, then there’s no place for it in your home.
Part 3: How to “revive” old cat toys
If you have toys that your cat used to love but now lost interest, I have a few ideas on how to bring the spark back.
1 – if it’s a catnip toy, try to wash the toy and then marinate the clean toy in a box filled with loose catnip. Try to leave it there for a week or so. I know there are catnip sprays on the market made specifically for this purpose, and we tried it with our kitties, but it was like Meh… Our cats and I don’t get it and don’t find that it smells like catnip at all, so I’m not sure what the purpose is. I’m sure there are different brands out there, and maybe the ones we tried just weren’t good.
2 – if it’s an automated or bulky toy, you can try hiding it for a few weeks, and then reintroducing to your cat. That brings back the novelty and believe me, it really works! Once we hid a cat tunnel for a few months, and after we reintroduced it, cats were really into it and had a blast.
I think this is all for today! Thank you for reading, I really hope you enjoyed decluttering your cat toys with me!
~ Vani 🐚