Hey I'm new with a kitty question

[Deleted]

I've had cats my whole life in my parents house. Litter box was kept out of sight in the basement. I'm moving into an apartment and I'm planning to get a kitten or two. My question is....where do you keep your litter box in an apartment? I don't want it to be messy and stinky, what's the easiest solution? Thanks!

[polarbearfans]

Clean it often. One apartment we had two in living room and one in bedroom. Now we have one in hallway and one in laundry room. We should have two more. The rule is one box per cat plus one. They don't smell if you scoop twice a day. Change litter weekly. Wash monthly. Replace yearly.

[Deleted]

May 31, 2012 19:12:26 GMT -5 polarbearfans said:

Clean it often. One apartment we had two in living room and one in bedroom. Now we have one in hallway and one in laundry room. We should have two more. The rule is one box per cat plus one. They don't smell if you scoop twice a day. Change litter weekly. Wash monthly. Replace yearly.

Thanks!

[sparrowsong]

Depends on the apartment. In one I kept it in a hallway coat closet with the door cracked. In one I had to keep it in the bathroom (litter kicked around made me crazy), in my current place there is a good place under the staircase.

If you are crafty or know someone who is, search pinterest/google for ikea hacks to turn some cheap cabinet furniture into a nice way to hide a litter box. Just looks like regular furniture but has a cat door sized hole on the side they can climb into to use the box stashed inside.

[calico]

We stuck the litter box in a bathroom, most of the time. Once, I think we kept it under the stairs. The kicked around litter drove me crazy, but I didn't want to put it on carpet, so we didn't have many choices.

[jennipea382]

We have two bedrooms so one of the rooms is the "kitty room". Both litter boxes are in there, along with a spare bed that no one wants to sleep on since it's right next to the litter boxes, haha. I've thought a lot about where we'd put the litter boxes if we're still in this apartment when we have kids. We have a hall closet and a closet in the bathroom, so maybe taking the door off or cracking the door will work.

At the apartment I lived in when I first got my cats, there was a closet under the stairwell next to the door. It was a pretty deep closet, so the litter boxes were in the back of that. It's hard to find a spot to keep it out of sight (or more importantly, smell) but have it easily accessible to the cats (especially in a rental where you can't make many changes!).

[niemand88f]

I keep the litterbox in a closet, luckily mine do fine with only one box because I don't know where I would put another one! The key is definitely scooping and cleaning frequently.

ETA: If you do actually get young kittens, they do best in pairs! ;D They burn off their crazy energy and razor sharp claws with each other instead of on you. Start clipping their nails and brushing their teeth young so they get used to it.

[msmerymac]

I used to keep one in the bathroom but my current bathroom is TINY. We have one in our bedroom (when we separate the cats we have to put one in there, so it makes sense), one in my big walk-through closet (accessible by both sides), and another under my desk along a far wall of the dining room. All out of the way of where we spend a lot of time. We only have 2 cats, but we scoop at least every other day, and dump and change them all once a week.

[brittmk0922]

In my last apartment before we moved here I kept one in a hallway closet with the door cracked.

[klingklang77]

I made the last one on this page:

www.ikeahackers.net/2007/08/simple-ideas-for-cat-litter-boxes.html

The one with all the little holes. It was really easy to make and I like that I have an extra table in the hallway.

[mainerocks]

Skipped the responses, but wanted to add that I have a box in my bedroom and you can't even tell. I do have one stinky pooper (not the one who uses the bedroom box), but as he approaches a year old, the smell is lessening.

[dottyblue]

Just be careful putting it in a closet with a door that latches. We went away for 1 night and the cats managed latch the door closed (they must have bumped up against it while roughhousing) and they couldn't get to the litter box. We had a lovely mess to come back to... +o(

Since then, we have learned to remove the latching mechanism from the doorknob and my cats know how to stick their paws under the door and pull it open so they can get in to their litter box. It's pretty easy to do.

Also, my SIL did the ikeahacker idea with a trunk that has a hole cut out of it and her litter box is in their living room. They just clean it often enough so it doesn't smell. It was a good solution for her.