Cat Litter: Studio Edition

March 3, 2018 9:40 AM

Anyone have a good solution for where to put the cat litter box in a studio apartment? The main issue is finding a location where humans don't pick up litter that has been tracked out and transfer the litter to bed.

The apartment is sort of a U shape with the closet in the middle of the U and the bathroom and kitchen on each tip.

Previously it lived behind/under a chair we just used for jackets and bags, but we've rearranged. Bathroom has been vetoed in order to avoid litter on clean feet.

We have a regular litter box with a cover and door and a carpet that supposedly helps pick up litter but my beautiful, obsessive cat likes to sit inside the box and play with the sand, flicking it out onto the floor. Maybe a different box would help?

posted by kittensofthenight to Pets & Animals (15 answers total)

I used a Modkat top-entry box for my cat when I lived in a studio. Expensive, but it worked for my dear litter flicker.
posted by sevensnowflakes at 9:42 AM on March 3, 2018 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Obligatory pic
posted by kittensofthenight at 9:43 AM on March 3, 2018 [3 favorites]

When I had a similar issue I got a litter box with higher sides. Or get/make a larger box to put the litter box in.
posted by theora55 at 10:02 AM on March 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Maybe put the litter box opening toward a wall, so that any flying litter can't go very far? You might want to consider mounting something soft (carpet, cloth) on the target wall area to prevent ricocheting.
posted by amtho at 10:06 AM on March 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

It's a bit of a lateral solution to the problem, but we also have a litter-kicking cat and the only thing that worked in a small apartment was getting a Roomba that could keep the floors litter-free.
posted by cpatterson at 10:10 AM on March 3, 2018

I can't imagine not keeping ours in the bathroom, it seems like the best place to confine waste. What we have done is to get a particular kind of doormat - I think I learned this on Metafilter - it is the kind that is rubber and the surface is made of small squiggly strings of rubber. They're easily found at your discount big box store in the section with bathmats and kitchen mats. We place the litter box on this mat so the cats have to cross it when leaving the box and it catches all the litter from their feet. Really all of it stays contained on the mat, so the bathroom floor does not get litter-y. Every couple weeks or so I take the mat out, shake out the loose litter and soak it in hot soapy water to be sure it's clean. It's worked for us.
posted by Miko at 10:14 AM on March 3, 2018 [4 favorites]

Is there room on the floor of the closet to put the litter box inside a big Tupperware storage box lined with carpet? It has to be big enough that the cat can comfortably jump out, or use a stool to clamber up. That would contain the flung out debris, and jumping up rather than walking out of the litter box seems to knock off most of the grains stuck to my kat's big fat paws.Put the big box on a carpet or rug that will also help hold anything kat doesn't knock off in the jump, and quickly use a vacuum when you scoop.

(sorry, slower than others ;)
posted by BlueHorse at 10:22 AM on March 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Nthing the mat under the litter and the top-loading litter box.

My current bathroom is too small for the litter box, so I had to come up with another solution. Thankfully, my closet is perfect. (It’s a sundry closet and not my clothing closet, as I’m lucky to have more than one.) It has sliding doors, so I just make sure that one door is slightly open all the time. It’s really nice that it’s not out in the open where guests can see. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to putting it in the bathroom, if I don’t have to.
posted by greermahoney at 10:27 AM on March 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you have room for another small piece of furniture, you could try the approach at this page, which features a studio apartment makeover that turns a cabinet into an enclosure for the litterbox. There's a short video and the piece on the litterbox solution starts around 2:30:

http://www.chatelaine.com/home-decor/the-home-primp-condo-living-room-dining-room/image/2/


posted by delphic at 11:42 AM on March 3, 2018

Our home also LOVES the breeze system. No cat litter bits, no smell of the clay, no sifting urine. It's amazing.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 12:39 PM on March 3, 2018

We've had great luck putting the litter box inside of a piece of furniture. We have two cabinets (one upstairs & one downstairs) with cat doors in the side that house litterboxes. The majority of the litter stays within the cabinet and there's no litter box in sight. Also helps keep down odors.

Litter box enclosure*: link

*We made our own enclosures but there are several available to purchase. This is just a sample & not a produce endorsement.

I also recommend a "black hole" style litter mat. Shop around as prices vary & there seem to be multiple manufacturers on the market. Rather than trapping the litter in the mat fiber, these mats capture the litter in pockets within the mat & then you can empty the litter back out. Very effective.

Mat: link
posted by countrymod at 12:49 PM on March 3, 2018 [4 favorites]

How about a simple room divider to hide the box behind?
posted by Thorzdad at 2:35 PM on March 3, 2018

1. Change litter: Newspaper pellet litter is hugely less trackable than gravel or sawdust litter, and the bits that do migrate are less painful to step on than silica crystal litter.

2. Minimize scatter: A high-sided litterbox (no lid needed- but sides at least 8 inches high) will help confine the mess. Maybe put a rug under the box to clean cat feet too (but careful as a wet rug may stain the floor in case of pee accidents)

3. Clean your feet before getting into bed: Put little rugs beside the bed on each side, and scuff your feet on the rug before getting into bed, to take off the cat litter and assorted other floor crud. Vacuum/wash the mat every couple of weeks.

4. Keep the litterbox pretty clean in the first place: I strongly believe that all poop belongs in the bathroom, so I keep an uncovered litterbox there. Covered litterboxes still stink to your visitors, and because you they're easier to avoid, they get dirtier and grosser than uncovered boxes. We scoop poop into the toilet & flush every day, and change / wash the whole box out every 5-8 days.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 3:52 PM on March 3, 2018

I encourage you to reconsider the bathroom. This is what I do in my small apartment. The trick, though, is to not use common litter. I use Feline Pine, which my cat has adjusted to just fine (yours might not). In addition to this, I went to the dollar store and bought a cheap bathroom mat which I put below cat litter box so that there is about a foot of it sticking out in front of the litter box (it's a covered litter box - this also helps with containing the litter). This pretty much catches most of the litter -- I keep a dustpan under bathroom sink in case any does get out and check for this whenever I scoop the poop, daily). If your cat doesn't take to Feline Pine, try Nature's Miracle Intense Defense Clumping Litter -- that was the clay like litter that I found to have the least tracking my various litter experimentations. But Feline Pine for life here -- it's lighter than regular litter, imo, it contains smell and I only change the cat litter once a week (scoop daily, though), and has very, very low tracking. Good luck!!
posted by dubhemerak3000 at 8:34 AM on March 4, 2018

nthing the Breeze system, though I have to admit that when you do step on a stray pellet, it's much worse than normal litter. Of course, that also means you won't make it all the way to bed with litter stuck to your feet. Note that the rubber mats do not contain this stuff (the pellets are too big to get caught up in it). I keep meaning to put a piece of fluffy carpet down instead, as I think that will do a better job of holding on to them. Your cat may be less interested in playing with it, but if he's still game, you will probably want to get a bigger (but still low-sided) box to trap any bits.

I've heard people say that enclosed litter boxes are not great for the kitty's respiratory system, as it keeps all the dust in close.
posted by natabat at 9:52 AM on March 5, 2018