I'm having the pleasure of keeping my 2 grandcats for a couple of weeks. When Max does his business, he loves to dig deep into the litter box and sometimes the urine sticks to the side and bottom of the box.
There is nothing I despise more than cleaning the litter box. Even when you dump it, there is still litter stuck to the bottom that you have to scrape out, and it stinks to all high heaven. Well, here's a way to keep the stink off and save yourself the trouble.
To keep clumping kitty litter from sticking to the bottom of the pan, spray it with non-stick cooking spray before adding the litter. It works like a charm!!
I have 10 cat litter boxes for our "always full" cat shelter. Over the years we have learned several things to keep the litter costs down, keep things clean, and we make our own litter boxes for some of our big cats.
I love my cats, but I don't love stinky litter boxes so I have two litter boxes. One is in use and the other is away. When one box gets dirty I replace it with the other box to give me time to empty the first one and thoroughly clean and sanitize it with vinegar, water, a bit of dish detergent and baking soda.
I use an ice cream bucket to put the litter clumps in. The top fits tightly so I don't have to worry about odor, and they are disposable.
Save the can that coffee came in and the lid. When empty, use the can to put dirty cat litter in, the kind that lumps and put the lid on top. This will keep the odor at bay and can be used several times.
Get 4 or 5 litter boxes of the same size. Fill each one with a few inches of litter. Stack one on top of another. When it's time to change the litter just remove the top most box.
When cleaning cat boxes, the ammonia smell lingers. Although ammonia is a weak base, it can also be a weak acid. My solution was to reduce the acidity by putting a small layer of wood ash from my fireplace in the bottom of the cat box, then add the litter.
Check the litterbox for solids every time you use the bathroom. You were going to wash your hands anyway.
Litter boxes can get smelly and dirty very quickly, especially if you have multiple cats. Here are a few tips to keep your litter box clean and smelling fresh:
You can recycle even when cleaning up after your kitties! I was scooping the cat litter into plastic bags each day, thinking I was recycling the bags, but duh!
With this system you use clumping litter and every other day lift out the layer on top and it sifts the good litter down for the next day. Then just throw away the layer with the soiled litter.
Insert a clean empty litter box into a large plastic trash bag. It should fit in the bag loosely. Dump the kitty litter into the the box.
Having had cats, and litter boxes, all my life I've tried every combination of things to make cleaning out the litter box quick, clean and easy.
