Litter Closet

Overview

Animated Diagram: Litter closet overview

Cats are ideal companions for many people, but litter box odor is a major issue — especially in smaller living spaces. However, a litter closet can solve this problem.

A litter closet is a small enclosure for a litter box that eliminates odor completely by ventilating it outside the home. Essentially, it is a cat-sized bathroom.

Conceptually, a litter closet is the feline counterpart to a dog run — a place for pets to autonomously relieve themselves that prevents the unpleasant sight and odor of animal waste from affecting the household.

Benefits of a Litter Closet

For cats

Video: How Litter Closets Help Cats

Like their undomesticated relatives in the wild, housecats get instinctually nervous when they cannot react to a threat, which makes using the litter box one of the most vulnerable times in their lives. A litter closet provides cats with a quiet, private room in which to relieve themselves, which helps reduce their stress and anxiety. Some cats have litter box enclosures already, but for those who don’t, this will be a substantial improvement.

A litter closet also whisks away lingering odors from other cats, which makes sharing a litter box more tolerable for cats who must do so.

For people with cats

Video: How Litter Closets Help Cat Owners

A litter closet eliminates all litter box odor, solving the number one complaint about cats.

Hands down, a litter closet is the pet feature most cat owners would value above all others. The other features are nice, but a litter closet is the only one that has been called “life-changing.”

Having a litter closet means you’ll be happier every time you walk into your home. It means you can invite guests over without feeling embarrassed or apologizing for the litter box smell, because there won’t be any.

It may even mean you can get another cat. The factor preventing many people from getting more cats is a lack of litter box space, especially in smaller homes. However, when combined with an automatic self-cleaning litter box, a litter closet can often be shared by two, three, or even more cats with no conflicts, since it effectively feels like a fresh litter box every time it is used.

When not using automatic litter boxes, which will only work with clumping clay litter, a litter closet can help you take advantage of other types of litter you may not have considered before. For example, wood litter pellets, when used in a litter closet, are vastly superior to clumping clay litter.

Wood Pellet Litter vs. Clumping Clay Litter
Advantages	Disadvantages
Cheaper A year’s supply of wood pellets can cost as little as $20. Cleaner Wood pellets don’t get tracked around the house like regular litter. Healthier The crystalline silica dust that causes clay litter to clump also causes lung cancer in both humans and cats. Eco-Friendly Pellets are made of renewable wood rather than strip-mined minerals.	Doesn't Clump Requires manual sifting, which takes a little longer than scooping. Lack of clumping can cause more odor to escape; however, with a litter closet this is not a problem. No Self-Cleaning Option All major automatic self-cleaning litter boxes are designed to work with clumping litter only.

Plus, with the right hyper-efficient fan, you’ll get all these benefits for less than a penny a day in electricity in the United States, even in the markets with the most expensive power.

For people without cats

If you don’t have a cat, a litter closet is simply a built-in cabinet with a finished countertop that can be used for storage.

You can still use the fan, though, which will ventilate out just enough stale air to keep your living space feeling fresh, as well as help prevent problems that occur with inadequate ventilation, like mold and mildew.

Furthermore, anything that could benefit from ventilation could be stored in the litter cabinet, such as plants, computers or other electronic equipment, 3D printers, or wine.

For rental property owners

Video: How Litter Closets Help Rental Property Owners

It benefits rental property owners to create a bathroom that a cat would prefer using. If a cat isn’t happy with its litter box, it will just go somewhere else. And you cannot trust people to thoughtfully consider that perhaps their choice of litter box location has anything to do with their cats’ behavioral problems.

If you do not provide spaces for a litter boxes, each tenant will put them in different places, which can eventually spread foul-smelling damage throughout the entire home. By providing a litter closet, you can contain all such damage to a controlled location, where you can mitigate or even prevent it entirely by using protective materials.

You also cannot count on tenants to use ventilation fans every time they should, such as when using the shower. However, the ultra-low trickle ventilation provided by the litter closet fan helps prevent property damage that occurs when moisture accumulates and is not properly ventilated, such as mold and wood decay.

However, the biggest benefit to you as an owner is that litter closets will add a massive amount of perceived value to your property because tenants love them so much.

Although the Haven Homes project is aiming to keep rent prices moderate, you could charge a significant premium for this feature alone, because it makes an enormous difference in the lives of people with cats. For tenants it will mean the difference between feeling like they’re living in a litter box compared to, for the first time in their lives, having cats in a house that smells normal. This will feel like magic at first, and then become a feature they can’t imagine living without. As long as you do not raise rents abusively, offering litter closets can maximize your revenue by significantly lowering vacancies and turnover, since once your tenants have lived with a litter closet, they won’t want to live somewhere without one.

How to Build a Litter Closet

Video: How to Build a Litter Closet

Pick the right location

Cats don’t like their litter boxes to be by their water or their food, so if you are also installing a bowl basin, make sure they are not right next to each other.

The litter closet should also ideally be in a quiet location away from foot traffic.

Look for a location where a counter-height cabinet would not look out of place, and ideally one that can be ventilated easily.

Install a ventilation fan

Install a vent duct just as you would for a bathroom vent fan. This will normally be a 4”/100mm duct, but it may vary depending on the fan and the run length.

It is crucial to use a fan designed for continuous use that can run at extremely low power. The ideal fan is:

• Small
  The fan should not be large; in fact, the smaller the better. An 80 mm fan is more than adequate.
• Efficient
  The fan should be able to operate drawing 3 watts or less.
• Silent
  The fan should produce no more than 30 dB of noise, which means you shouldn’t hear it outside the litter closet.

Fans designed for this specific purpose are known as continuous extract fans. Other fans have an extreme low-power option built-in (often called “trickle speed”), while still others can be modified to operate at very low power by using a variable-speed controller, which you can install inline or in place of a regular switch.

Some useful tips:

Get a DC brushless motor.
Although more expensive, DC brushless motor technology is designed for low noise, low energy use, and extremely long life.

Add an outlet.
While you’re running electrical service to the fan, add an outlet as well to allow the use of automatic litter boxes and night lights. Locate the outlet away from the entrance and behind where the litter box will go so the electrical cord will not be in the pathway. Also, position the outlet near the top of the litter closet to provide an effective location for a night light.

Add a filter.
Get a fan case with a screen or filter slot to prevent cat hair from clogging the rotor; however, the fan should be operating at such a low power that hair is not easily sucked into it.

Bigger is not better.
It’s best to use a very small fan. A litter closet requires only a tiny amount of constant airflow to work. In fact, you don’t want any more airflow than is necessary since it will be venting some of your indoor air outside. A small amount of constant ventilation is good for your health, your pets’ health, and helps prevent problems like mold and mildew; however, too much ventilation would make your heating and air conditioning inefficient. Rule of thumb: If you can perceive any draft or sound outside the cabinet, the fan is probably too powerful.

Build the enclosure

The next step is to build an enclosure that will be ventilated by the fan. This is typically a cabinet, but it can also be built into the lower portion of a closet.

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  Illustration: Cabinet installation

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  Illustration: Closet installation

Make the enclosure big enough to accommodate an automatic self-cleaning litter box as well as space to maneuver in and out of the litter box.

If you build an enclosure with interior dimensions of at least 30”H x 25”W x 40”L, you will be able to fit all the most popular automatic litter boxes while leaving enough room for most cats to comfortably maneuver. It’s a good idea to accommodate multiple models instead of just one, as technology changes rapidly and your litter closet will long outlive any automated litter box.

While width and length will vary widely depending on your environment, if you are building a cabinet, it’s almost always best to make it standard counter height (34-1/2” cabinets, typically finished to 36” outer height). Here are several reasons why:

• It’s only a little taller than the tallest major self-cleaning litter box.
• Adding a countertop makes a useful surface at comfortable height.
• The space inside will be more useful when used for storage.
• It will be easier to clean (very important).
• Fans will burn out if the volume is too small.
• Extra space makes it more comfortable for cats to use.
• Pre-made cabinetry components are plentiful at this height.
• Counter height cabinets look normal; other heights do not.
• It’s the perfect height to house a scratch station. (See Why scratch stations belong in litter closets for more information.)

The floor of cabinet should be treated with a waterproof material, like epoxy paint or vinyl tiles. To be safe, you should also coat at least the lower 12” of the interior walls and seal the lower joints.

Illustration: Cross-section of cabinet

If you are building a cabinet, add an access door, which should close snugly without any large gaps. Do not add a gasket to form an airtight seal—it is not required, and the airflow through the small space around the door will help ventilation. The door needs to be wide enough to comfortably remove the litter box and clean the cabinet, and it needs a secure latch to prevent the cats from pushing it open.

Ideally, build the cabinet without any face frame below the door to allow the litter box to slide out easily—although for aesthetic purposes, you may opt to attach a faux face frame strip to the door that looks like part of the frame when the door is closed. Since a heavy litter box will be repeatedly slid across the bottom edge, it is advisable to cover that edge with a durable material and/or build a small ramp to the floor to prevent damage.

Illustration: Cross-section of closet

Alternately, if the enclosure is built into the lower portion of a closet, the existing closet door can be used for access. To ensure proper ventilation, the lowest shelf in the closet that forms the roof of the litter closet should be deep enough to nearly touch the closet door when closed to separate the space below from the top portion of the cabinet.

The disadvantage of building into a closet is that every time you open the closet door, air escapes, and the rest of the closet shares airspace with the litter box. In practice this still works well, because with proper ventilation, the air from the litter closet does not flow into the rest of the closet. However, people may still be uncomfortable with the proximity nevertheless. If building for renters, stick with cabinets.

Add a cat entry door

Photo: Cat entry door

Add a cat-sized entry door to the enclosure. It is best to use an open door rather than one with a flap, since this will dramatically extend the life of the fan. The negative air pressure caused by the ventilation will ensure no air escapes.

Put the door in a location that cannot be blocked by normal, everyday actions, like leaving a nearby door open.

A cat door with an integrated brush is highly recommended, so cats can groom themselves each time they use the litter box. These significantly reduce the amount of loose cat hair, especially in homes with multiple cats.

Recommended Accessories

Self-cleaning litter box

Using an automatic self-cleaning litter box will reduce the frequency with which the litter cabinet must be opened, but that’s not nearly the best part.

When combined with an automatic self-cleaning litter box, between the frequent litter cleaning and ventilation, the litter box feels like a consistently fresh environment to most cats, which will encourage finicky cats to use it.

This also means that a litter closet can often be shared harmoniously by multiple cats that otherwise would not share a litter box. This in turn means that people may be able to get more cats without conflicts or more litter boxes, which is especially important for people in small homes with room for only one litter box.

Scratch station

Photo: Scratch station in a litter closet

The litter closet is a great place to put a scratch station, so cats can clean their claws immediately after using the litter box, among many other reasons.

See Why scratch stations belong in litter closets for more information.

Nightlight

Cats require very little light to see, but at night the interior of the cabinet may be too dark for even a cat to navigate comfortably. A tiny nightlight will provide more than enough light to remedy this.