Thanks Diandra
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Good question about why the laundry is the sleeping spot. I guess that part of it is habit - Blackberry and Waiwaiaa are my third generation of cats and the previous generations slept there.

The herding is getting better - it is now just a brief game having first cunningly filled their bowls in the laundry with dinner
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Apart from that I wanted them to learn that the laundry is where their litter tray is. This has worked fairly well - there have been a few (coughs) "accidents" elsewhere in the house but less so than before.

My kittens got desexed a couple of days ago. This involved putting them into the cat cage and walking up to the vet. They were not impressed with this - the claw scratches on my arms are healing well
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I was impressed with the vet - I got a heap of handouts explaining what would happen, including full details of the anaesthesia, which I checked out of course
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It was uneventful - they are eating and drinking well. They have been fitted out with what amount to plastic lampshades on their heads to stop them from licking their small (a few cm) abdominal incisions until they have completely healed. They find them a bit disconcerting - keep on bumping into things.

The vet nurse told me that I should keep them as quiet as possible for about a week, which has been a non-trivial task
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. I have confined them to the kitchen, laundry and computer room which is sort-of working.

No jumping up or down, is basically the rule.

You might find that the urine accidents stop finally. They occur when females approach estrus , to attract males.

We've never had this, but my son took in a feral years ago who
who he didn't think was old enough to spay yet...as she was sooooo thin, and starving. She urinated in 3 corners of his home, but no longer does after the spay.

We didn't use the the "collar of shame" as my husband calls it.
None of our cats were very active after the spay procedure.

Blackberry and WaiWaiaa had their abdominal surgical staples removed today which was routine.

The vet nurse also removed their (in mrsD's phrase) "collars of shame" which they both appreciated.

They both ate and drank well tonight and are enjoying having full access to the house
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Both Waiwaiaa and Blackberry are totally back to normal
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mrsD, thanks for your wisdom about urination
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. I reckon that you are right - it is now 14 days since they were spayed and there have been no "accidents" since then - nothing else is different - their litter-tray gets changed same as before.

The kittens continue to thrive.

One thing that I have noticed is that they tend to defecate in random places. I don't think that this is an issue with their litter tray, which they use for both defecation and urination and the litter gets changed regularly.

Does anybody (mrsD?) have any thoughts on how to discourage this?

Try having a second litterbox. Some cat experts suggest a litter box for each cat.