All cat owners face the same dilemma: our kitties need a place to go potty, but none of us really want to have to see and smell it.
No worries!
Check out these clever solutions for hiding your cat litter box!
Related: eco-friendly cat litter box
The litter box is a problem area in many households with cats – it’s ugly, smelly, and overall unpleasant – but we owe our ability to keep our cats safely indoors to its invention.
Still, no one wants to look at it all day long, right? Even it is a small litter box for a small space!
We’ve come up with some easy solutions to keep it close by for your cat yet out of sight for you.
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The first two our favorite options, but if you just don’t have that kind of space, keep reading for some hiding spots that don’t require a huge bathroom or laundry room!
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Tips for Hiding Your Cat Litter Box
1- The bathroom
One of the most common places for a litter box
is in the bathroom, but in many places, there just isn’t any room in a bathroom for anything else taking up floor space.
If, however, you can find a spot (maybe an over-the-toilet wall cabinet, a medicine cabinet, or a linen closet with baskets) to put your typically under-sink cleaners and toiletries in, that lower cabinet can make a perfect litter spot.
There are a couple of ways to do this, and your options may be somewhat dependent on whether you rent or own.
If you know you are looking for a permanent solution, you can cut a hole in the side of the cabinet or the door, and either leave the hole as-is or add a cat flap, so that your cat can come and “go” as they please.
If you are renting – or for a different look – you can take the doors and hinges off (carefully stash them somewhere you will be able to find them) and hang a curtain around the cabinet.
This can be easy removed, any marks from hardware should be easy to disguise, and your cat can get through easily.
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2- The Laundry Room
A laundry room is another popular spot for a litter box, and under the laundry sink is a good spot, as you can use a curtain in the same manner as under the bathroom sink.
The benefit to both laundry room and bathroom is that they are usually easy to clean and without carpet for any tracked litter to get into.
Great. Problem solved.
Unless, of course, you don’t have a laundry room, you have a pedestal sink in your bathroom, or you have more than one cat.
Experts recommend one litter box per cat, plus one extra (although, if you are diligent about cleaning the box, you can get away with fewer)- and finding space for three or more litter boxes in an apartment or small house can be tricky to say the least.
Not having litter boxes isn’t really an option, but then what can you do?
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There are a number of creative options when it comes to disguising your litter boxes, below are just a few.
3- “Treasure” chest
While I, personally, don’t consider the contents of the litter boxes in my home to be exactly treasure, my dog would beg to differ.
Regardless, a treasure chest can be a neat way to hide a litter box in plain sight – even as a focal point.
An old steamer trunk or cedar chest is a conversation piece with a secret, although you may not want to use Grandma’s heirloom hope chest – I recommend a thrift trip for this one.
You will need to cut a hole in this big enough for your cat to climb through, and the hole can be anywhere the cat can access easily (the back of the chest is fine as long as it is far enough from the wall for your cat to get in).
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4- Shelve it
If you have a good, deep, bookshelf or entertainment center, you can sacrifice a lower shelf for the litter box.
This can either be closed in with wood with an access hole cut somewhere into it (be sure you can access the box to clean it as well – you can put the panel on hinges to make this easier) or again with a piece of fabric that your cat can push past.
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5- Wizarding World
One of the coolest things I have seen done with a litter box is to create a space under the stairs for it.
There is typically a large door covering the space for access, with the camouflage being limited only by your imagination.
I’ve seen people paint little hobbit holes, dollhouses, and fairy homes on the wall, with the entrance to the box marked by a small arch or cat door that blends into the mural.
6- File It Away
If you have an old filing cabinet lying around, you can take out the second drawer from the bottom, and put the litter box in the bottom drawer.
A secure screen or plastic grid over the front half of the drawer acts as a means to eliminate some of the excess litter from your cat’s paws, and keep your office floor clean.
I’ve seen this same idea used on an old dresser – remove the bottom couple of drawers, pull the fronts off of them and mount them to a piece of plywood that fits inside the gap.
Use hinges and a latch to reattach the drawer fronts, disguising the now hidden area in behind, and cut an entrance for your cat in the side of the dresser.
Caution:
When using a file cabinet, dresser, or shelving unit, always make sure you secure the unit to the wall – especially if there are upper drawers that are not empty.
Otherwise, pulling out the upper drawers could result in the furniture tipping over, which could cause serious harm to you, your kids, or your pets.
The litter box may never be your favorite part of the home, but it certainly doesn’t have to be a source of shame. Keep it clean and tucked out of the way, and your cats and guests will thank you.
Do you have any other great tips for hiding your cat litter box? Share below!
I like the idea of placing a litter box on a bottom bookshelf with doors and cutting a hole in the door for the cat. Under the stairwell is another great and unexpected idea.
I think these are great ideas, most of my friends with cats always keep them in the bathroom but that too can be problematic for guests
We don’t make any effort to hide ours. It’s in the kitchen and we don’t mind having it out there in “public”.
We always hid ours. Figured the cats didn’t want to see someone using their bathroom just we don’t want to be seen in our bathroom.
I like idea number 5 actually. We have a spot where that would work beautifully. Now I need to convince someone we need a kitten. LOL. My neighbours have 3 boxes for 3 cats. I always thought the seemed like a lot but I guess it makes sense. I hate the smell so I liked them hidden away when we had two cats. Great ideas.
We don’t have any pets, but I like the ida of putting it in a treasure chest. That is a great way to conseal it and you could even get a very decorative treasure chest.
We have found that this really works for us. Our furbaby population got to six once.
That is alot for a two bedroom apartment. So to save space we bought a small plastic ”kiddy waring pool.” We then placed the largest cat pan we could find in the middle of the pool.
It has helped to contain those pesky litter bits from getting on our floor and can be recycled when you change the litter.
Besides, the babies think they are at the beach with all the different places to call their own. No more property issues in the box.
We have since moved into a large house and the “litter Pool” now resides in the laundry room instead of the kitchen pantry.
Win win for everybody.
We just keep ours in the basement! If we ever move to where there is no basement, I’ll have to come up with a more creative way to store them.
We have a small corner fireplace. We keep a large hooded cat box in it with quilts on a stand screening it from the room.
I really need to find a new place for our litter box. Our cats sometimes make a mess of it, and then it gets walked in. No one likes that.
What great ideas. I don’t have a cat but I love the idea of putting it in a deep shelf.
We keep our litterboxes in the bathroom. I like the idea of putting it on a bottom shelf behind a hinged door.
We had trouble finding an out-of-the-way spot for our third litter box. It would probably be a good idea if we moved it to the bathroom.
Yes! I think that is one the the biggest frustrations about cat ownership! What to do with the litter box!!
These are really very practical and sensible suggestions. We do not have a cat right now but will share these with a friend who finds this to be a vexing issue.
Wow, what a great suggestion. I don’t have cats now, but when I did where to put the litterbox was my biggest challenge.
I love this post. My husband and I have been trying to solve this problem for months.
Our bathroom has a separate tub and shower, and we never use the tub. So that’s where the litter box lives. Safe from the dogs, and all the litter that gets tracked out stays in the tub.
The problem with hiding the box though is that it can make the cat feel trapped and vulnerable, as well as trapping the smell. Think port-a-potty. Really it is better to keep it in the open. The cabinets with the door off isn’t a bad idea. It keeps the litter box from being something you have to trip over, but will still let Kitty feel safe. I have a lot of cats and we have litterboxes everywhere, I just tuck them in a corner of the room.