Cat owners...

[telophase]

...speak to me of litterbox solutions, O dearly beloved f-list.

We went down to one litterbox when we moved, because the laundry room only had room for one. Someone, and we think we know who, is expressing displeasure at this setup in a rather obvious manner. So we need to go back to two.* The ultimate solution, which we shall resort to if necessary, is to stack the washer and dryer and put the second litterbox in the newly-vacated spot. This will probably block the door into the garage, but as we have two doors into the garage, one from the laundry room and one from the hall outside the kitchen, this is not a plan-killing situation.

I do realize that it's going to be hard for you to suggest places for another litterbox to go without actually knowing what the house looks like, but oh well. I lived for 2 years with the litterboxes in my office and NEVER AGAIN.



* And to think that when he was a kitten, Sora couldn't wait to ditch his cute little litterbox and use the one that the big cats used...

Comments

[movingfinger]

We have the litterbox in a half-bath on the first floor. We haven't had a problem with noncompliance events on the second floor or elsewhere, even with multiple cats.

The peeing is certainly about MY TERRITORY MARK HERE MINE MINE MINE. Did the previous occupants have pets? Cleaning really really well may help remove odors, also confining peeing cat to small space with box to reinforce training (MEEEEYOOOOWWW of course being the hazard with that).

[telophase]

The guest bath is a jack-and-jill one, with a small room with a sink coming off the hall, then a narrow room with a toilet and tub, and then a final ... not room, but niche in the guest bedroom with a sink in it, sort of like a hotel. So not much place to put another litterbox, except for the tub itself, and as our water pressure and hot water capacity is AWESOME enough that we can take showers at the same time, we'd rather not do that!

There's a closet near the laundry room -- and we ahve a plethora of closets plus a large attic so no lack of storage space -- that might work to hold a litterbox with a cathole in the door.

[movingfinger]

A thing to consider is that if your laundry area is small, and you stack the machines, you can put in a nice little counter for folding on (although yes, you lose the use of the tops of both machines for that, or to run a counter over both of them). Stuff like litterboxes can go under the counter unobtrusively.

[telophase]

Toby's washer and dryer are these front-loading behemoths, currently standing on pedestals. You expect to hear the theme from 2001 playing as you open the laundry room door on them...

If we stack them and put a counter in, the second litterbox has to go under the counter. :) We'll probably end up doing that, but ... aargh the work involved in stacking the damn things.

[movingfinger]

Eeek!, are they the Maytags? I do not know who in their right mind would have bought those (obviously you inherited them w/ the house, so I feel free to insult them). They don't use much less water than a usual American top-loader and I have heard bad things about breakdowns and maintenance.

You should get appliance guys to do the stacking, if you decide that's the thing for you. The machines have to be handled in a certain way, the washer AFAIK (this is a standard thing for front loaders with fast spin) has a massive counterweight in it somewhere, and the manufacturer probably has a special stacking-stabilization kit that needs to be correctly installed. Do not try it yourselves!

I have had lighter-weight (Whirlpool, Creda, and Miele) machines, which are stackable, but the idea of stacking larger machines is actually a little scary.

[telophase]

Toby bought them. :) Before we were dating. He did the whole compare-and-contrast Consumer Reports thing and bought them. They've been fine, except for now we're going to have to hire someone to help us stack them -- we did ask Lowe's, where he bought them, and Lowe's only stacks if they're freshly purchased and delivered by them, aargh!

*goes and checks* Ah, Whirlpool Duets. Mind you, the laundry room here is small and was constructed with top-loaders in mind. XD

[stardustmajick.livejournal.com]

If you have one, the guest bathroom, until you have guests, when you can pick it up for the duration of their stay and then put it back. Those Fabreeze "small spaces" air freshener thingies work wonders.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

The guest bath is a jack-and-jill one, with a small room with a sink coming off the hall, then a narrow room with a toilet and tub, and then a final ... not room, but niche in the guest bedroom with a sink in it, sort of like a hotel.

So there's no real space to put one except for in the tub itself, which won't do either as we discovered that our water pressure and hot water capacity is SO AWESOME that we can take showers at the same time without any change in either person's water. SCORE.

[maxineofarc.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain; my current apartment has basically NOWHERE for litterboxes. Feh.

Is there room under one of your bathroom sinks for a box? That's a solution I've used in the past before I moved into this apartment with the !*(#&$& pedestal sink.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

That might have to be a solution. There's also a small closet in the hall - and we have a plethora of closets in this house - that might take to having a cathole (http://www.cathole.com/) put in it and a litterbox in it.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Yes, ours in the half-bath fits under the wall-mounted sink. The half-bath is so small that it probably isn't code-compliant (no joking, the city cares how much space we have on either side of the toilet).

The covered type of boxes get mixed reviews from end users but certainly do make for less litter flinging. I clean the box so often that smell isn't really a problem for us. Most of the time. Except when Arthritic Cat misses, poor thing.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

I've got one of my cats who's taken a dislike to the youngest of my cats, to the point I have to keep Rufus locked in my bedroom when I'm not in the house - Kiki's drawn blood on him at least twice, and the position of the wounds makes it really obvious he was running away when she did it. (No surprise, she's twice his size, the bully!) Unfortunately, the litterboxes were in my master bath / laundry room area, so I had to relocate three of the four. They're currently residing in my hall bath tub, where I can pull the shower curtain shut if I have company. (Fortunately, if I have someone staying overnight, the guest room has its own bathroom, so there's no worries about that.)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yikes!

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Yeah. But putting them in the tub has actually worked out pretty well. Not only does it mean that the black kitties are not doing drag races through my bedroom while I'm trying to sleep, but it confines the scattered litter almost completely to the tub itself. Fortunately, I've got one of the stoppers on my bathtub that drops into the drain rather than being integrated into it, so I don't have to worry about that crap getting into the plumbing.

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

I have mine in the dining room area of the kitchen. But that only works for me because 1.) It's one of the few tiled areas and 2.) I almost never eat at the table. My parents have one in the front foyer, and move it on the rare occasions they have front-door guests.

As a final thought, the inappropriate elimination ought to stop as soon as they're settled in, so if you can live with an office litterbox for a short period of time, you might be able to ditch it in a month or so.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

the inappropriate elimination ought to stop as soon as they're settled in

Oh, I hope so...

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Since mine are currently in my living room and dining room, I am not one to be giving advice.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

LOL When I was living in my apartment, I hid mine behind my recliner. Yes, the one that I sat in all the time.

As you might imagine, I kept it scrupulously clean. Still freaked out my sister when she came to visit, but it was the only place on the entire first floor that wasn't either a) in plain sight to everyone or b) in a food area. I draw the line at litter boxes where there will be food prepared or eaten.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I second the bathroom idea. It's where I keep my litterbox. I'm not super-pleased with that solution, since taking a hot shower is really smelly (I guess the steam intensifies the odor or something), but living in a NYC apartment means there's not a lot of other options.

I'm jealous of your laundry room!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

One of our rock-hard requirements when we were looking for a house was a laundry room inside, not in the garage. It's very small, but it means we can wash clothes in the air conditioning! (108° today...)

[wyrdness.livejournal.com]

I guess the only real advice I can suggest is find somewhere quiet that doesn't get constant human traffic. Also maybe invest in a covered litter tray if you don't already have them, our cats seem to prefer them way more than the usual open tray.

In our house we have a lack of suitable spaces and in the end we've placed one in the "laundry room" area of the kitchen, one by the back door in the kitchen and one in the hall near the front door. The one near the back door doesn't get used much because that's where the cat flap is, the one in the laundry room gets moderate use, mostly peeing, the one near the front door is by far their most favourite, is our only covered one, and is in a relatively quiet area of the house. Being covered means guests don't have to see any poop when they come and visit and if cleaned regularly it doesn't smell either. :)