Coping With a Cat’s Litter Box in a Small Apartment

Every piece of advice on cats litter and litter boxes appears to assume you own a house with several bathrooms and unused laundry rooms. If you live in a studio or one-bedroom apartment, this is not always true. The box is right nearby everywhere you eat, sleep and work, and every mistake with it is very hard to overlook, usually because of the smell.

However, this is not as bad as it may seem. In a small place, there is simply less room for errors, and you can’t ignore the basics.

Choose the right spot before buying a box

In a house, you may easily put the litter box into some corner and forget about it. In an apartment, the location should suit both you and your pet.

What does your pet need? Privacy, quiet, and a clear path to exit. What do you need? The box away from your kitchen, bed and your line of sight while you have guests. These needs actually coincide quite nicely.

Some good locations include:

• The bathroom. The most frequent choice for a reason. The flooring is usually easy to clean, and you can keep the bathroom door opened a little. Remember to check that the door won’t lock your cat outside and keep the box away from the toilet itself.
  
• Corner of your bedroom or living room behind some furniture. Placing the litter box behind your sofa or some bookshelf allows keeping it hidden from your guests without forcing your pet to cower.
  
• Closet without a door or with a propped open door. It works provided your cat can see out and leave freely; a closet with a door that sometimes gets closed will lead to an accident on your carpet.
  

Bad spots include:

• Right next to food and water bowls (cats don’t like to eliminate where they eat);
  
• Right next to some noisy appliances;
  
• Next to anything that your pet is afraid of. It might be anything – a dog, clanking radiator or other pets through the window.
  

A bigger box is better

Buying the smallest box you can find is tempting if you have a small space. However, your cat is more likely to avoid such a small box. Try to choose a box at least one and a half times your pet’s body length.

If the space is especially tight, try to make your box high or vertical. Tall sided boxes allow keeping the litter confined without reducing the usable area. Various enclosures that can serve as a side table are good choices too if they are big enough and properly ventilated.

Litter boxes with covers can be a tricky issue. Such boxes hide litter from the sight and reduce the spread of litter, however, they trap odor with your pet inside. Some cats tolerate such boxes without problems, but others start avoiding the box. If you decide to use a cover, pay special attention to your cat’s habits during the first couple of weeks.

Smell management is all about routine

No special product can compensate for the lack of cleaning. The key rules in a small apartment are:

• Scooping the box every day, twice if you can. It takes less than a minute, and this is the single biggest factor affecting your home’s smell.
  
• Regular change of litter. Wash the box with water and plain soap. Special disinfectants and bleach can leave the smell which cats dislike.
  
• Keeping a lidded waste bin or a roll of plastic bags near the box. Otherwise, the cleaning won’t be done.
  
• Proper ventilation. An open window or a small fan next to the box help more than any spray.
  

It’s very tempting to try to mask any smell with air fresheners, scented litter or plug-ins. However, cats’ sense of smell is many times more powerful than yours. The fragrance can become the reason why your cat looks for some other place. In a small apartment, you’ll also breathe this fragrance all day.

Be attentive to the dust and tracking

The litter box in a studio is basically part of your living room. That’s why it’s very important to consider what happens outside the litter box.

First of all, the dust may be an issue. Many clay litters release a cloud of dust every time when they’re used and in a small room with closed doors it will settle on furniture and get into the air both for you and your cat. This dust may cause troubles for asthmatic cats and other cats with respiratory diseases as well as Persian cats and other flat-faced breeds.

Second, the litter box tracking is the problem. The smaller and lighter granules stick between paws and appear in your bed, on your sofa and in your kitchen. A special mat in front of the box will solve the majority of problems, and the larger and heavier granules are less likely to track.

If you’ve decided to try some different litter, do it gradually within one or two weeks. The sudden change of litter can be the reason for avoiding the box.

Create the right environment for your cat

Even the perfectly located litter box may be ignored by a stressed cat. Small apartments can create stress for cats in ways that are not evident: no places to rest, no place to hide, nothing to do.

Here are several tips to help you avoid this situation:

• Create some height. Several wall shelves, cat trees or a cleared windowsill will provide your pet with territory without consuming floor space.
  
• Provide your cat with some hiding place. The cardboard box or covered bed will do.
  
• Play with your cat every day. Ten-minute session with wand toy in the evening will do wonders for burning off excess of energy and keeping your cat calm.
  
• Have fixed routines. Fixed times for meals, playing and resting.
  

A calm cat uses the litter box much more reliably.

What if you have several cats?

The general recommendation is to have one box per each cat plus one additional box in different places. It’s sometimes hard to fit three boxes in a small apartment. At least make sure you have two boxes in different places and scoop them more often. Watch out if one of the cats guards the box or attacks the other near it.

Call a veterinarian if your cat avoids the litter box

It may seem that avoiding the litter box is related to the small apartment. However, some urinary problems, kidney problems, diabetes, constipation and arthritis show up in litter box changes first. A male cat straining and producing only a few drops of urine in the litter box requires immediate veterinary assistance.

The key conclusions

Living in the same space with a cat depends on some habits: a proper location, a litter box big enough for your cat, daily scooping, ventilation instead of masking with fragrances and low dust litter. Get these basics right, and almost no visitor will notice that there is a cat in your apartment until one comes in to say “hello”. If you are mostly concerned about dust and tracking, natural cat litter can be useful for you.