I’ve had cats ever since the early 80’s. My first cat was a beautiful white cat named Casper. Ever since then I’ve always one more cats around. All my cats have been indoor cats and, as much as I love my cats, litter boxes have always been the most disliked part of having an indoor cat.

Living with Litter boxes

There have been lots of dirty litter boxes over the years and they have always been a chore to keep clean. There have been a few attempts to make cleaning the litter box easier but it remains a thankless chore. It’s a messy, smelly job that no one looks forward to.

Since we began starting a family a few years ago, I got the job of cleaning the litter boxes. I still don’t know how that happened. Regardless, I did the best I could to keep the litter boxes clean and the cats happy; with a good deal of protest and reluctance.

If I could, I would get rid of them. Toss each litter box out the window. Life would be so much better without them. They stink and I hate cleaning them. But until they invent a poo-less cat, they will remain one of the unpleasant things that go along with having indoor cats.

A litter box is a litter box is a litter box…

We’ve had all kinds of litter boxes in our house. Each litter box made various promises from managing litter mess to controlling litter box smell. We usually tried to keep things simple and use something our cats would do well with.

But, what’s so special about a litter box anyway? As long as our cats used them we were happy. Just a basic one will do, right? Well, no. Apparently litter boxes are an important part of your cat’s life.

We’ve had open trays, covered boxes, self-cleaners, cat furniture and a variety of other litter boxes of various shapes and sizes in an attempt to improve the quality of our cats indoor life.

We found the simple covered litter boxes were the best. Litter furniture was too heavy and more work to clean although litter furniture was great for hiding the litter box. The self-cleaners were messy and at times spooked the cats enough that they stopped using them.

Out of sight, out of mind

Our cats litter boxes used to be kept in an inconspicuous area of the house. Our many friends with cats did the same thing. It was a common thing to hide the litter box where only the cat could find it.

I totally support putting the litter box out of site. Cats preferred it too because it provides a quite spot for them. At times we had trouble remembering where they were. As much as we liked this idea it did manage to create some recurring problems for us.

If the litter box is out of site, it is usually out of mind, until it starts to smell and by that time it’s too late. Daily cleaning can slip into weekly cleaning and before long your cat is toileting somewhere else until the litter box is cleaned.

Relocating the litter box

To keep the cat’s litter boxes from getting out of hand, we decided to put them in a more noticeable, low traffic spot. This way we could keep it clean every few days instead of every few weeks. This idea worked really well. Unfortunately that meant having ugly litter boxes in the living room, family room, kitchen, basement or bathroom.

Now that we were living with the daily sight of litter boxes, we decided to start looking for a litter box that had a nicer appearance. More importantly we wanted something easy to clean and cat friendly. We looked at a lot of litter boxes but didn’t see anything better than what we already had.

When accidents happen

A lot of extra time and money has been spent cleaning up after our cats when they have toileted in other areas of the house. We cleaned it up thoroughly to keep the cats from using it again. Luckily the cleaners we used did a great job.

In some cases we had to replace a carpet or throw out a piece of furniture that had been ruined with cat urine. If your cat is going in other areas of the house, try cleaning their litter box more often. If that doesn’t work, a trip to the vets may be needed to see if your cat has any medical issues affecting its behavior.

One of the many cat owners that I’ve know for years even went so far as to devote an entire room of their apartment to their cats litter box just to keep the mess and smell in one area. An extreme solution that promoted neglect no doubt, but for them it was all they could do to stop their cat from going elsewhere.

Home, Sweet Home!

Having dealt with litter box problems for years, we started keeping a closer eye on our cat’s toileting habits in order to find a better solution. We came close a few times to trying something better, but cost or additional problems prevented us.

Our beautiful new basement with our unattractive litter trays

These days our litter boxes are kept in our newly renovated basement. It looks great, except for the sight of four litter boxes. We thought a few times about hiding them away again, but we would just end up with the same problems we had before.

One idea was to put them in the closet or the furnace room, but they were too ‘out of sight’. Our second idea was to get some expensive litter furniture, but we didn’t think it was worth the trouble.

Even though we didn’t like seeing them there, the litter boxes were kept clean and the cats seemed happy. Regardless, the litter boxes still looked awful in our new basement. So, we kept looking for a better looking box. It was the best way to go.

Our home-made cat furniture from the top looking inside.

We liked the idea of an enclosed box that didn’t look like a litter box. We came up with an idea to build our own cat furniture for under $100. A week later we had our first box built. The cats used it and liked it, but there were a few ‘unfortunate’ design issues to work out.

In the meantime we kept looking for a better solution to our litter box problem. Right around the same time we were fixing the problems with our cat furniture we read about a new idea for a litter box.

It was five months after dealing with litter boxes in the basement when this new product got our attention. It was something like the cat furniture we made, but a lot better.

It was a cat litter box that looked like a small house called the Litter House. It was a uniquely designed, covered litter box that hid the cat litter box from view and looked good in any room. It was exactly the kind of thing we were looking for.

It was very different and quite unlike any other litter box we had seen before.

We were very excited and couldn’t believe we actually found something. We wanted to find out more about the Litter House.

At first glance, it fit most of our requirements; easy to clean, attractive anywhere in the house, light weight, manageable size, durable, cat friendly, low litter spray, handled litter box smell, and best of all it was very affordable.

So we got one! So far, it’s been working perfectly. We put our cat furniture aside and slowly started replacing the litter trays. Its working so well we now plan to get one for each cat.

The Cats new Litter House

The litter house came at a perfect time for us. It solved all our problems. We’re impressed with how great the basement looks now and the cats are thrilled to have a special place for their litter. When friends drop by they think the basement looks terrific and ask what we did with the litter boxes.

If you’re suffering with any litter box problems or just don’t like looking at an ugly litter box, then consider getting a Litter House. We highly recommend them. If you already have one, leave us a comment and tell us all about it.

If you have any questions about the litter house, send us a comment. We’d be happy to help.

We have a full review of the Litter House in the works. It’s coming soon! Please stay tuned.

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