BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Cats How Often Clean Litter Box?

In this CNN article about having a slob for a partner -

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Litter Box single choice
	4+ times/day
	2-3 times/day
	once a day
	every other day
	less than every other day
Votes accepted starting: 04/14/08 04:14 PM
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Once a day sounds reasonable to me for indoor cats.

I have only one cat, who has a rather large litter box. If we get too busy or forgetful, we can skip a day of box cleaning. But she won't tolerate more than 48 hours between cleanings. She'll start pacing around and glaring. So we shoot for once a day. Usually we achieve that, but we miss a day occasionally.

About the article: If using scoop-able litter (and most people are these days), daily cleaning of three boxes should take about five minutes. Add an extra couple of minutes every couple of days for sweeping up kicked out litter. (I have a professional litter kicker, so I spend an extra minute or two with the broom everyday.) Once every month or two, when it's time to do complete change outs of the litter, both parties do it. Basically, I'm saying it's not an unreasonable expectation... not even remotely.

Vacuuming once a week is a good idea, especially with cats in the house. Not only does it create a cleaner home environment visually, but it's good for the health of both humans and pets not to have dirt, fur, and whatever else gets tracked in accumulating on the floor.

Assuming the woman's BF does not have an enormous house, and doesn't have antiques on every available surface, her supposedly overwhelming chore list should not take more than two hours TOTAL of her entire week. The great thing about keeping up with dusting, vacuuming, and litter boxes is that it takes less time if you do it frequently.

I think of once a day as quite reasonable and know several people who do more than that. Our litter boxes are in the basement - we have two very large ones for our two cats - so I admit that sometimes I do a day or two between changes and I always feel extremely guilty about it.

It definitely sounds like she's scooping litter, and I really would think once a day is what it should be done - that her partner is being reasonable in having that expectation.

That being said, she is saying they are "his cats". If they are HIS cats, why isn't he cleaning up after them, especially if he doesn't agree with her schedule? That seems a bit odd to me ...

That was my thought....

Depending on how many cats there are, once every other day might be alright but once a day will certainly do a better job of preventing the whole house from smelling like one big litter box.

Kitty litter is never a fun chore but for those who love cats as much as I do, it's a necessary evil. Personally, I like the electric litter maid. It can't do all the dirty work but it sure does help!

His cats, his antiques, did he want a girlfriend or a cleaning service?

It is one thing if you are trying to divide up chores, someone takes something they are good at or that they should be responsible for or trade chores back and forth.

However the issue isn't really how many times a week she should clean litter boxes it is should SHE clean the litter boxes and dust his STUFF. I don't think dusting is a problem usually but to even mention that he has "antiques" that need to be dusted indicates to me that he collects stuff, probably too much stuff.

She should move out. LOL

I overlooked the mention of her phrasing on that one, Lisa. Good point. Saying "his cats" sort sets off alarm bells with me. If you are serious about a relationship, and have agreed that living together is the next best step, then followed through with that plan, you should have accepted ALL members of the household and ALL aspects of living with them.

As an animal lover, I see her situation as akin to marrying a guy with kids. You marry the kids, too, in some respects, and become partially responsible for their care. You have to accept that going in or not go in. You move into a home with cats, you are moving into their home, too, and becoming part of their family. You are agreeing to taking on some of the responsibility of their care by moving in.

If you are unwilling to help care for the dependent members of a household, you shouldn't be part of that household.

Her phrasing is very telling. It screams out that she is unwilling to accept all aspects of life with this man. Of course, her complete laziness is an alarm bell of it's own... Just from the little snippet of their life I have seen, I am doubtful of the couple's long term potential for happiness.

Hey, when he said he would agree to do the things he was really picky about, did that mean he would add them to his own chore list? Does he have a chore list?