When cats do their business it can smell rather repulsive. This is fine if you have a huge house, but what if you have a tiny apartment? Where should you put that litterbox then? Well, we are going to answer all of your most burning questions on this page. Let us help you to find the best place for your cat’s litterbox. Don’t worry, it isn’t as difficult as you may think.
It can be difficult to find the best place to put a litterbox in a small apartment. Our suggestion is at the entrance to the apartment or in the bathroom. In both locations, your cat will feel comfortable doing its ‘business’, and you don’t have to worry about the smell wafting through your apartment quite so much.
We want to expand upon this a little bit, including giving you some of the reasons why cats will feel comfortable having their litter box placed in these locations. We also want to go through how you can keep the area smelling as fresh as possible. All of this information is based upon our own personal experiencing of owning cats.
Where to Put Litter Box in a Small Apartment?
As we said, there are two different places that you can place your litterbox. Our suggested location will always be by the entrance to your apartment. There are a few reasons for this.
You should always be placing your litterbox in a place with a strong human scent for starters. Cats love it. It makes them feel a whole lot more comfortable with their surroundings. By placing the litterbox by the door, they may also be able to catch the scent of cats outside. Again, this is something they like. We suppose that using the litterbox close to where they can catch the scent of another cat really helps to play into the idea that they are marking their territory.
In most cases, placing the litterbox by the door allows your cat to feel comfortable. Cats feel vulnerable when they are doing their business. Therefore, the litterbox needs to be in a location where they can keep an eye on all areas of the room. We suggest that you try and push it up into the corner somewhere. This means that the cat will be able to keep an eye on everything happening in front of them. They will feel protected behind.
Chances are that the entrance to your apartment is going to be getting a lot less footfall than the rest of your apartment too. This means that your cat is less likely to be startled by people coming and going. Again, this is really going to be playing into their sense of security.
Of course, some people don’t really feel all that comfortable with putting the litterbox at the entrance to their apartment. After all, unless it is kept clean, it is going to be a rather awful smell when you walk through the door. There is nothing quite like the feeling of being away for hours and hours on end, only to walk through your door and smell feces and urine from your cat that is over 8-hours old. It is repulsive. Not good if you were bringing a date back home, either!
For this reason, a lot of people make the choice of putting the litterbox in the bathroom. The cat is going to lose out on the scent of other cats outside, and it may lose a little bit of that social need, but at least it isn’t going to smell all that bad. Your cat is probably going to feel very comfortable when they are in the bathroom too.
In fact, the only real issue with putting the litterbox in the bathroom in a small apartment is that you may have to move it whenever you take a shower.
How Do You Keep the Area Around a Litter Box Smelling Fresh?
When you have a litterbox in a small apartment, it is important that you do your best to keep it clean. If you don’t, then you are going to end up with a hideous stench drifting through the apartment, and since your apartment is small, it is going to build up rather quickly. Thankfully, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get everything nice and clean.
For starters, we suggest that you stick with a stainless steel litterbox. If you use a plastic one, the plastic is more likely to hold onto the bacteria. This means that no matter how much you wash the litterbox, the smell will remain. If you have a plastic litterbox, then make sure that you are replacing it every few months for this reason.
If you can, you should try and scoop the litterbox every time the cat does thier business or at least a couple of times per day. If you have litter that ‘clumps’ then this job should be pretty easy.
Every week, you should empty the litterbox at least once. This means throwing out all of the old litter and then adding some new litter.
Finally, always try to buy the highest quality litter that you can afford. High-quality litter tends to be scented. This can help to mask the smells of the cat’s feces and urine. High-quality litter tends to be a bit better at absorbing smells too. This means that you have to put up with less of a stench.
Sadly, there is only so much that you can do to keep the area around the litterbox smelling fresh. At the end of the day, it is going to be a bathroom for your cat. There will always be a small smell there that you won’t be able to get rid of. However, we suppose that this is part and parcel of owning a cat, right?
Where to Put Litter Box in Small Apartment Final Thoughts
If you have a cat in a small apartment, you should always try to ensure that the litterbox is placed in an area where the cat will feel safe. The entrance to your home or the bathroom will be your best option. Make sure that you keep the litterbox clean, and you won’t have to worry about awful smells coming from the litterbox no matter where you place it.
Have you ever been living in a small apartment or home and struggled to find the perfect spot for your cats litterbox? Where did you end up putting it? Any horror stories? If so, let us know in the comment section below and as always feel free to checkout out latest cat articles!