Hello everyone
.


I was wondering if anyone has any tips to share regarding litter boxes and easy cleaning.

The experts say that to have a proper sized litter box you are supposed to measure your cat from nose to butt. The width of the litter box should be as long as the cat, and the length of the litter box should be the length of the cat plus half the length of the cat...

So if your cat is 12 inches from nose to butt, the litter box should be at least 12 inches wide and 18 inches long.

The experts also say that you need one litter box for each cat.

I have 3 cats.

If I followed the experts advice, my litter box (or a combination of more than one litter box) would be a total of 36 inches wide and 54 inches long!! That would be a huge litter box and the space it would take up would be insane.

For our litter box, we have a rubbermaid box that is meant to be an under the bed storage container. It's about 14 inches wide and 32 inches long. It's big for a litter box, but not as big as it "should be" according to the cat experts.

I use a scoopable litter (Tidy Cat with the Tidy-Lock system). I scoop it daily, and I do a complete change-over and scrub down every week.

We buy a new box every few months because the plastic gets scratched when they go to dig and cover (this is why we started using rubbermaid, because the actual litter boxes would get scratched up too, but they were more expensive to buy and they get scratched up too quickly... the rubbermaid is a harder plastic so it doesn't scratch very easily).

When I scoop, I dump the clumps into a small garbage can with a small garbage bag inside and then tie it up when I'm done.

Anyway, my point of this whole post is because I am wondering what types of litter boxes other people use, what type of litter, how often you scoop, how often you do a change-over and scrub, and if you have any tips or ideas to make scooping and cleaning easier.

We can't use any of the automatic litter boxes because -

1. we have no available plug and the only place that is near a plug where a box would fit is in my dining room and I don't want a litter box in my dining room especially since there is no wall between it and the kitchen.

2. one cat is terrified of noises and movement, so he would run away and refuse to use an automatic box.


So - does anyone have any ideas on how to make the job of litter box cleaning/scooping easier on my wrists, arms and back? I wish we could allow the cats to be outdoor cats for at least part of the day, but we live so close to the woods which are full of foxes and coyotes and they wouldn't last an hour out there.