apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I'm not a cat person. I'm allergic and I think that for some people they can be kind of an unfortunate substitute for having people in your life. They are pretty, though, and if my place had that cottage kind of bead-board style I wouldn't put it past me to get a cat (and some shots) if the litter box could be that discreetly tucked away.

They have this at Solutions.com, too. It's one of the more attractive ways to hide the litterbox. Ikea Hacker had some interesting litterbox covers recently, too: http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2007/08/simple-ideas-for-cat-litter-boxes.html

and I think that for some people they can be kind of an unfortunate substitute for having people in your life

you mean, like, the cat lady from The Simpsons? because honestly...i prefer my cats to most of you humans! i'm trying not to get upset at your comment :)



as to this cottage-y litter house, my mom would love it!

me, though...i don't know many people that have room, especially in their bathroom, for more furniture, or for such "single use" furniture. and seriously, i would not hang my pooper scooper all cute-like on the towel bar. no way! icky.

this seems rather unpleasant for the cat. locking him into tiny a closet with a small opening, quickly filling with ammonia fumes?

I agree with vinegar.

In addition, if my cats had to go through the effort to leap into the litter box through the elevated door, chances are they would just as likely not use the litter box at all. But maybe my cats are lazier than most?

...and nothing says "good morning" like stepping on cat litter when you get out of the shower!

Ugh!

It's not a bad idea for the right cat...

... the problem is asking the cat's opinion before buying.

Our small, aggressive cat would think it hilarious to lurk outside the opening and pounce on the large, timid cat as she exits the box.

Apartments should just be built with litter box nooks, the way they used to have phone nooks. If you don't need a litter box, you can store something else there.

I wish there were a sleek modern wood alternative to this beadboard box that did not cost 2,000 bucks a la Kattbank.

My 15 year old 15-pounder has no problem using an enclosed box as long as it's cleaned as it should be every day (they don't mind the scent of their own pee, you know), and the opening on this one appears to be a high step, not a leap.

Actually, this box appears to have a lot more airspace that even an extra large enclosed litter box, so it looks pretty cat-friendly to me. My old boy would probably be able to turn around in it quite comfortably.

But I agree-- hide the scooper! not something I want to display to the world!

yeah, i agree, it looks roomier than the enclosed box i have from petco/petsmart/whatever.

while it is very fugly, it is better than the flower pot/planter litter box thing....which, er, my mom also has.

poor mom, she has a kitty with horrible stomach issues, so she has 7 litter boxes and does them all twice a day!

she's bought every hidden-litter-box contraption known to man.

What if you have 3 cats? You need more than one litter box, certainly. Eventually I may downsize to a condo apartment so I'm always keeping an eye out for litter box solutions.

I have two big litter boxes in my basement, and I'm getting into the habit of going down there once or even twice a day to clean the litter. It keeps the cats happy and the place definitely smells less. I also use a biodegradable clumping litter to keep things that much tidier. It's a little more expensive than normal clay but it's worth it to the air quality of my house and the rest of the environment.

I am not a fan of cats but this is cute idea :)

blackdaisies,

i'm not going to help advertise the kattbank because it's horribly overpriced, but they do have that double-litter-box bench.

SO, if you ever find a bench that has a flip top and proper dimensions, cut out cat-doors on either end and fit two boxes in there. easy, eh? or buy the kattbank.

I have the Kattbank. When I bought it everyone said, I can't believe you are spending $2000 on your cats. And I said, I am not spending $2000 on my cats, I am spending it on me. I could have diy-ed my own ala Ikea Hacker but to be honest I work crazy hours and don't have the time or the patience (or the skills). I don't have room in my bathroom to tuck away even a basic litter pan without and didn't want one front and center for all to see, not to mention stepping around it and the stray litter that has been sprayed onto the floor so I needed a discreet, attractive solution for my bedroom. The Kattbank filled the bill and it was totally worth it.

kdkaboom- one of my kittens has a sensitive stomach. I tried every premium brand of canned cat food on the market and none of them worked. Tell your mom to try Nature's Variety (formerly Prairie) frozen raw food. It straightened my kitty right out and it's nutritionally complete, human grade and a very natural diet for cats.

I think HGTV's Decorating Cents did this a while back. They did 2 versions both with beat up thrift store finds. One version they used a jigsaw to cute a hole in the door for the cat to go through. In the other they just took off the door and put some funky fabric on a dowel across the opening and then painted the piece a bright color that picked up the color from the fabric.

If I got another cat I would definitely do this.

The photos on the Kattbank website are HILARIOUS. Especially the crazy lady with the yarn and the bored-looking model type sitting on the box during a party. Excellent.

The IKEA Hol box hack Erin K. linked to is great! IKEA sells a lot of things that could be easily made into a kitty washroom, like the APA box or the HEMNES bench.

I'm a small dog person, myself (though I grew up with cats, and respect them still), and I'm still waiting for someone to come up with a way to hide the wee-wee pad. Something tells me that's not happening! Oh well.

we have three cats, and i have a tiny closet off our kitchen that i built a double decker cat box for. we just made a sturdy shelf above the box on the floor and put the second box on it.

mixed reviews -- i just did this, and i can't tell if they are jumping up the second box, but hopefully they'll get the hang of it.

a bigger prob. for me is the litter. i can't stand it everwhere. ifi put a litter mat in front of the box, they'll just jump over it when exiting.

any solutions for that?

Jamie* -- They clench their little paws to hold in the litter until they can drop it three feet away. The low-tech solution is to store the vacuum or broom or even a dust pan and brush near the litter box, so you don't feel like you're dragging all over the place in order to clean up.

I actually bought this litterbox from Skymall and really like it. When I lived in NY, there's no way I would have had the space for it, but my bathroom in DC is nice and roomy and there is plenty of space. Sure beats the purple plastic dome we were using before from PetSmart.

peripatetic19 -- i love my purple plastic dome. i call it "the spaceship." but it's definitely an acquired taste, aesthetically!

You know, I saw this the last time I was on a plane to Miami. I also noticed the other versions (one was a bedside table!) I was more okay with this one rather than having a litter box right next to my bed or as a side table next to the couch.

I don't care what kind of litter you use, you'll smell it if it's right under your nose.

I think that they are over all funny in general, but having it in the bathroom makes more sense than as a night stand. haha.

curtis and kdkaboom,

the same can be said for dogs.

I'm always amazed at the people who seem to think they are doing dogs some huge favor by locking them in an apartment or a house - for 23 hours a day.

I love that kitty has a little shelf there for his books in case he needs to do some reading while doing his business...

I have gone through so many litter box solutions, stopping just short of the Kattbank. My solution is this: 2 litter mats cut to fit my narrow back hallway, and 2 Clevercat litter boxes. The litter stays contained and that is all i care about!

Try toilet training; it really does works. Took 7 weeks to train both my cats and now the only thing I have to do is flush(often). I do keep a bag of feline pine around for emergencies.

The only down side is if you have only one toilet, but more than one cat (my case). If toilet stinks, they might go elsewhere.

Anyone have DIY ideas for automatically flushing a toilet?

How do you toilet train a cat??

www.citikitty.com

CZ is right toilet training does work.

My cat took right to it.

My cat at first was okay with being toilet-trained, but towards the end of the training he decided he was done with it. Caused me a lot more headache to clean up after him than it would have to clean a litterbox. He's 14 and set in his ways though. It's probably a lot more successful if you start training a kitten.

Citikitty worked great for me for a long time, until all of a sudden there was a revolt. You can imagine how pleasant that was.

Who wants to step on cat litter in the bathroom? And the clay-clumping stuff will turn to mush if it mixes with water. Do like I did. Get a Litter Robot, hide it in a closet, and check on it once a week. As nerdy as it sounds, the thing has changed my life.

litter-robot.com

@jamie - One word: Roomba

This is pretty cool. I have 2 cats and I'm betting my "crazy" cat will be ambushing my scaredy cat if I install a hidden cat litter box for them. I'll probably build 2.

Sorry, this is correct link to read more on a cat litter box

We have one and had to special order the litter box to fit it. Also, the cat can easily "scoop" the litter outside the "door". Not worth it!

Our cats are pretty good about using the litter box until it's absolutely disgusting (it's my husband's job to clean the litter box, as they're his cats and I'm pregnant). This litter box works pretty well, and also keeps our dog from trying kitty rocha. I assembled this myself and found it easy. I got it from Amazon, where it cost more but had free shipping using Prime.

no no no! i hate this, hate this, hate this. got it so that i could replace my eye-sore dome. litter was everywhere, the inside would get messy and gross and i was cleaning it all the time..(underneath the box). it also smelled worse. i ended up hauling it outside and putting my dome back. will not change to any other box besides my booda clean step dome. the best by far. please don't waste your money on this. you'll regret it.

in this link there is another one but for two cats, is a ikea hacker, http://piratasdeikea.blogspot.com/2008/09/cuarto-de-bao-para-vips.html.

regards from http://x4durosdesing.blogspot.com/
tururu

I have this and I love it. It is rather big and takes up a good deal of bathroom floor space but its worth it to me to not have to see a litter box.

This definitely depends on your cat. Litter definitely gets under the box and on the walls, stuck in corners... so even if you scoop the litter box, if you don't wipe the inside with a sponge and a vaccuum hose, the smell lingers inside. My cat was ok for about two weeks, then she started going everywhere BUT her litter box.

Someone mentioned how apartments should come with a litter box nook, and that's exactly what I use the built in desk for. I don't actually sit at it like a desk anyway, so having the litter box under underneath with a piece of fabric hanging like a curtain... hides everything just fine.

I can't recommend this highly enough! It has made such a huge improvement in my home.
It was easy to assemble and is surprisingly sturdy.
The cat just steps into the opening. You can mount the bar on either side, so the scoop can be hidden (mine faces a corner).
It is just as clean and convenient as a covered plastic box. I scoop it often enough--and she's not in there long anyway! I keep a little mat outside it, but the tracking has not been bad.
Try checking Pet chain websites like PetCo, Pet Smart, etc.--I got mine on sale and with free shipping.

Because of the way our apartment is set up, the only spot for a litter box was in the foyer. We decided to go with the "litter box as furniture" idea and ordered one from this site: http://www.catlitterfurniture.com/site/356568/ It was the best decision. Our litter box, which we ordered in a dark ebony stain, actually looks like an end table. Everyone is shocked to learn that it's a litter box. Clean-up is easy too since the doors on the front of the litter box swing open. I'd definitely recommend it and the price wasn't bad either.

I used to have this. It worked for some time....but it was too small for one of my kitties and he refused to use it after a while. This obviously resulted in a lot of accidents here and there...I finally had to get rid of it. In fact this caused so much trauma to my kitty that now he refuses to use any kind of covered litterbox no matter the size. So my advice is, if your cats are petite, this one should work great...but this is not very good for larger cats.

We have a cat that insists on peeing on the bathroom floor rather than the littermaid thing. When I sent this link to my husband, his response was: "if you can make our Peanut go in there, I'll buy anything!"

That is very nice. I keep my cats' Giant litterbox on the terrace so I'd love to find one that is all weatherproof and can be opened from the top. Can anyone suggest one?