This Shockingly Stylish Find Ended My Search for the Perfect Litter Box (It Saves Me So Much Time!)
When I first got my cat, I didn’t even have a litter box. I agreed to foster her within a day, and the closest thing I had to a cat toy was a cardboard box (which she of course loves more than any of the expensive toys I’ve since bought her). Her former foster mom kindly brought a standard bright blue plastic litter box for me to keep, which was perfect for the short-term. But, unsurprisingly, my foster turned into a foster fail, and when I signed the adoption papers I knew I’d need to invest in a more permanent litter box solution.
The issue was, my dream litter box (a phrase that had never occurred to me before adopting a cat) had a lot of boxes to check. For one, I live in a cozy one-bedroom apartment, where every piece of furniture needs to serve its purpose well and look good doing it. I also keep the setup for my cat, Miss Scarlet, in the nook between my living room and kitchen, so I wanted something that was not so obviously a box filled with litter. And, given its prominent location in my home, I needed something that would help conceal any odors, too.
I spent weeks searching around online and considered several different options for litter box enclosures, but I ultimately didn’t want to bring another huge piece into my small apartment. Suffice to say, when PetSafe offered to send me an automatic litter box to try, I was thrilled.
What Is the PetSafe ScoopFree SmartSpin Self-Cleaning Litter Box?
The ScoopFree SmartSpin Self-Cleaning Litter Box is a stylish, automatic litter box that takes care of the scooping for you. As much as I absolutely adore my cat, scooping litter is without a doubt my least favorite part of caring for her. Blessedly, this litter box takes that chore out of the equation: It detects when the cat enters the litter box, then waits a few minutes before rotating completely, sifting the clean litter out, and filtering the clumps and waste into a drawer below.
The drawer is six liters and designed to hold up to two weeks’ of waste, although you can also track how often your cat is using the box with the connected PetSafe app. There, you can see a detailed log of when your cat entered the litter box and when it was cleaned. You can also adjust the automation to your preferences by toggling on options like a child lock, increasing the delay between when your cat leaves the box and when a cleaning cycle is completed, and even switch it from automatic to manual, if you prefer to control when the cleaning happens yourself.
Why I Love the PetSafe ScoopFree SmartSpin Self-Cleaning Litter Box
It’s not an overstatement to say I love this litter box. Not only is it a far cry from the eyesore of an open box, but the white plastic dome-shaped design is also surprisingly sleek. The wood-look tapered legs make the litter box look more like a piece of furniture, too, and mirror my mid-century modern style couch in a very satisfying way.
What’s most important to me, though, is how much my cat likes it. Because this litter box looks a bit like something from the The Jetsons set to me, what with its futuristic style and robotic nature, I was a little worried she would be scared off by it. To help ease the transition, I kept her original litter box out for the first week, but she took to the new one quickly. Rather than run away when the first time it spun to complete the cleaning cycle, she stood by and watched in amazement.
The litter box is designed for cats up to 25 pounds, and the circular entrance is about 12 inches off the ground. Because she’s a spry kitten, Miss Scarlet can easily step inside — although I imagine when she gets much older and less agile, I may have to get a litter box that’s shorter and easier to climb into.
She’s been using it with ease for a month now, and my entire home is better for it. Not only is she happy, healthy, and using it regularly (which I have a record of, thanks to the app), but I also feel so much less stressed. Before I had an automatic litter box, I’d spend a few minutes scooping and disposing each day, plus an indeterminate amount of time wondering if my home smelled bad and figuring out how to make it smell better. Candles were lit, sprays were spritzed, and an air cleaner was purchased.
Now, since the dirty litter and waste is always being filtered out, I all but forget it exists. The litter stays fresh (better for Miss Scarlet, too) and unsmelly — I use this Arm & Hammer litter that does a great job nixing odor and clumping up so the litter box can easily sift it out. I dump the drawer into a trash bag and take it out maybe once a week, saving me so much time each day.
Having the self-cleaning litter box has also given me so much peace of mind when I leave home, knowing my cat will have a clean environment throughout the day, and I’ll come home to an apartment that smells nothing like litter.
Buy: ScoopFree SmartSpin Self-Cleaning Litter Box, $349.95 (normally $399.95)