Do I really have to remove every houseplant?

No, but you do need to know what you have. Remove the ones whose name you do not know and the high risk ones, move the rest onto shelves the animal does not use as a route, and cover the soil in pots with pebbles, which discourage digging and eating compost. For cats lilies remain the absolute exception: they do not come into the house, not even as cut flowers in a vase.

Is balcony netting enough on its own?

Netting is the main measure, but it must run to the top and be fixed along the bottom edge too, because most accidents happen where the net lifts. Add blocks on tilt and turn windows, which are the second most common domestic accident in cats, and remove from the parapet anything that lets the cat get over the netting from above.

How long should the animal stay in a single room?

As long as it needs, not as long as suits you. The criterion is simple: you open the next room when it eats with appetite, uses the litter tray or toilets outside on a regular pattern, and stays out of its hiding place while you are present. For many animals that is two or three days, for an adult cat adopted from a shelter it can be two weeks.

I already have a pet at home: do I have to do the whole round again?

Yes, because a new arrival changes both heights and habits. A puppy reaches things your adult dog ignored, and a young cat uses vertical routes your senior cat no longer takes. Redo at least the steps on cables, bins, chemicals and windows, and prepare a separate starting room to manage the first introductions as well.

Safe home and enrichment120 minLevel: BeginnerUpdated on July 21, 2026

Making the home safe before a puppy or kitten arrives

Two hours to make a home safe before a puppy or a kitten arrives: a room by room checklist, the measurements that matter and a final check.

Audience: Pet owners
Species: Dog, Cat
Scope: Valid everywhere

What you need before you start

Due ore libere con la casa vuota, per poter aprire ogni mobile senza fretta
Un metro a nastro e una torcia per controllare fessure, sottoscala e retro degli elettrodomestici
Canaline o guaine per i cavi, fermi per le ante e un cestino con coperchio a pedale
Uno scatolone dove raccogliere tutto quello che sposterai in alto o chiuderai a chiave

Pet proofing is not a list of dangerous things to remember, it is manual work you do once and that lasts for years. The right moment is before the animal arrives, because afterwards you are working with a creature that follows your every move and puts its nose into every open cupboard. The difference between a safe home and an ordinary one comes down to a few dozen concrete actions: cables gathered, doors latched, bins closed, cleaning products moved up, windows blocked. You need a two hour block, a tape measure, a torch and a cardboard box. The method is the same for a puppy and for an adopted adult cat, with one important difference: a dog reaches what sits on the floor, a cat also reaches what sits high up.

The method: look at the house from the animal's height

You do this on your knees, with your head about thirty centimetres off the floor, because from down there you see things that simply do not exist when you are standing: the socket behind the unit, the bottle cap under the sofa, the cable dangling from the bedside table, the loose edge of the skirting board. For a cat you do the round twice, the second time looking up: an adult cat reaches a shelf at a metre and a half from standing, and from there it can reach the entire upper layer of the house, including the surfaces you consider out of reach.

Anything below 30 centimetres is immediately available to a puppy that explores with its mouth.
A healthy adult cat jumps roughly five times its own shoulder height from standing, so no shelf is genuinely high.
Any object that passes through a ring made by your thumb and index finger can be swallowed: those go first.
String, ribbon, hair ties and dental floss are the most dangerous category for cats, because a linear foreign body damages the intestine along its whole length.
Any gap your closed fist fits into is a possible hiding place: close it or make it reachable.

The room by room checklist

Main risks and the concrete action for each space
Space	Main risks	Action
Kitchen	Reachable bin, dangerous foods, cleaners under the sink, hob knobs	Pedal bin or bin inside a latched cupboard, cleaners moved high, knob covers fitted
Bathroom	Human medicines, open toilet, dental floss, hair ties, cotton in the bin	Cabinet with a latch, toilet lid always down, closed bin
Living room	Cables, blind cords, plants, small objects on low tables, open fire	Cables in trunking, cords shortened and fixed high, plants removed, fixed fire guard
Bedroom	Medicines on the bedside table, hair ties and jewellery, space under the bed	Bedside table emptied, closed containers, under bed access blocked or cleaned and made safe
Utility room	Open appliance door, detergent capsules, iron with a hanging cable	Appliance door always shut and drum checked before every cycle, capsules high and closed
Balcony and windows	Falls from height, tilt and turn windows, wide railing gaps	Netting tensioned over the full height, window blocks fitted, gaps closed with panels
Garage and store	Antifreeze, paint, rodent bait, tools, bags of compost	Room locked, and containers sealed and stored high anyway

The two hours of work in ten steps

Clear the band from the floor up to thirty centimetres
Room by room, collect into the box everything resting below thirty centimetres that is not furniture: slippers, caps, coins, children's toys, bags. Do not decide now what is dangerous, collect it all and put back on the floor only what genuinely has to be there.
Gather and protect the cables
Every hanging cable goes into trunking or a sleeve, or gets fixed behind the furniture. Live cables are a real risk for puppies that chew everything and for young cats that play with anything that swings. Unused sockets get covers.
Close the gaps the animal can squeeze into
With the torch, check behind the fridge, the washing machine and the units, under the stairs and behind the sofa. Close what you can with panels or rigid card, and leave open only what you could reach with one arm if the animal got stuck.
Move cleaners, medicines and chemicals up high
All cleaning products, human and veterinary medicines, supplements and gardening products go into a high, closed cupboard. An unlatched cupboard under the sink opens in seconds with a nose, and child latches only hold when fitted to both doors.
Sort out every bin in the house
Pedal bin in the kitchen or bin inside a latched cupboard, closed bathroom bin, bedroom bin removed. Bin contents are the most frequent cause of foreign bodies and gastroenteritis in the first months, far ahead of plants and cleaning products.
Review every houseplant
Move out of reach the ones whose name you do not know and remove the high risk ones entirely. For cats, lilies deserve a separate rule: flowers of the genus Lilium and Hemerocallis are linked to severe kidney damage even from contact with pollen, so they do not enter a house with a cat.
Block windows, balconies and stairs
Tilt and turn windows must be blocked or fitted with a panel that closes the V shaped gap, because a cat that tries to pass through gets wedged and slides downwards. Balconies and terraces need netting tensioned over the full height, and indoor stairs need a gate if a puppy is arriving.
Shorten and secure blind and curtain cords
Any cord hanging in a loop is a strangulation risk, especially for young cats. Shorten them, coil them and fix them to a wall hook above a metre and a half. The same applies to lamp cables and to dressing gown belts hanging on doors.
Prepare the starting room
Choose a quiet room with water, food, a hiding place, the litter tray if a cat is arriving, and no escape route. This will be the space for the first hours or days: giving access to the whole house immediately is the most common reason animals hide behind furniture for days.
Do the final round on your knees with the torch
The last pass happens with the lights off and the torch held low across the floor: that is how you see the small objects left behind, the staples, the buttons, the drawing pins. Compare with the photos you took at the start and close the list before you go and collect the animal.

Measurements and thresholds to respect

Balcony netting with a mesh no larger than 3 centimetres, tensioned to the ceiling or at least 2 metres high, and fixed along the bottom edge too.
Gaps between railing uprights closed where they exceed 5 centimetres, using rigid panels or plastic coated wire mesh.
Tilt and turn windows kept shut or fitted with a panel that removes the V shaped gap on all three sides.
Stair gate at least 75 centimetres high, screwed to the wall rather than pressure fitted if the dog is over 15 kilos.
Cleaners and medicines at a minimum height of 150 centimetres and behind a closed door anyway, because cats climb.
Pedal bin, or a bin inside a cupboard whose doors are held by a latch fitted to both leaves.
Water bowls in at least two places, kept at least 2 metres from the litter tray and never in the same corner.
Objects smaller than 3 centimetres removed from reachable surfaces, because that is the size below which swallowing becomes likely.

The first seventy two hours in zones

First night and first day in the starting room only, door closed and visitors limited to the people who live there.
Second day: open a second room, keeping the starting room door open so the animal can go back.
Third day: add the hallway and the living area, still leaving the original refuge accessible.
Balconies and terraces stay closed until you have checked the netting with the animal in the house, and never during the first seventy two hours.
For a cat, keep the litter tray in the starting room for at least a week before moving it, and then move it a few metres at a time.
Note where it hides and when it eats: those two data points tell you whether settling in is progressing or whether you are moving too fast.

The final check and the repeats

A pet proofed house dismantles itself within a few months, because daily life puts objects back on the floor, leaves doors open and exposes cables again. The repeat check is short and worth scheduling, especially after events that change the layout of the house.

Full recheck after a house move, after building work and after guests who stay more than two days.
Weekly quick check of bins and latched doors, which are the first two things to slip back.
Balcony netting checked in early spring and early autumn.
A new round on your knees at every change of season, when curtains, blankets and plants change.
Clinic and poison centre numbers saved in your contacts and pinned in the kitchen, with the address written out in full for anyone who has to call on your behalf.

Frequently asked questions

Do I really have to remove every houseplant?: No, but you do need to know what you have. Remove the ones whose name you do not know and the high risk ones, move the rest onto shelves the animal does not use as a route, and cover the soil in pots with pebbles, which discourage digging and eating compost. For cats lilies remain the absolute exception: they do not come into the house, not even as cut flowers in a vase.
Is balcony netting enough on its own?: Netting is the main measure, but it must run to the top and be fixed along the bottom edge too, because most accidents happen where the net lifts. Add blocks on tilt and turn windows, which are the second most common domestic accident in cats, and remove from the parapet anything that lets the cat get over the netting from above.
How long should the animal stay in a single room?: As long as it needs, not as long as suits you. The criterion is simple: you open the next room when it eats with appetite, uses the litter tray or toilets outside on a regular pattern, and stays out of its hiding place while you are present. For many animals that is two or three days, for an adult cat adopted from a shelter it can be two weeks.
I already have a pet at home: do I have to do the whole round again?: Yes, because a new arrival changes both heights and habits. A puppy reaches things your adult dog ignored, and a young cat uses vertical routes your senior cat no longer takes. Redo at least the steps on cables, bins, chemicals and windows, and prepare a separate starting room to manage the first introductions as well.

What to do next

Take two hours with the house empty, do the round on your knees with a torch and a tape measure, and work in the order of the ten steps: low band cleared, cables protected, gaps closed, chemicals up high, bins sorted, plants reviewed, windows and balconies blocked, cords secured, starting room ready and a final check. Then photograph every room and schedule the netting check twice a year.