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neadodsThe cleaning idea:
I used to clean the bathroom and the kitchen with dedicated cloths soaked in windex. And for lick-and-a-promise convenience cleaning, that's not half bad, although I was buying insane amounts of windex because I'd end up soaking a rag, using it, and then washing most of the windex out of it.
Now, there are ways of making it better, but in my case, perfect isn't the enemy of good; perfect is the enemy of done at all. So at some point I'm going to find a more environmentally friendly way of doing this than using disposable wet swiffer pads. But until then, it's possible to fold a wet swiffer in thirds "upside down" and use 1/3 to wipe down your counter and sink, 1/3 to wipe down the toilet seat outside and in, and 1/3 to wipe down the shower walls and stall, then flip the thing over so it's dirty side up/clean side down and mop the bathroom floor with it.
The litterbox hack goes like this:
Shut, it's a nice little chest/two level storage unit made out of a sturdy corner cabinet:
Inside:
The opening is 1 inch higher than the lip of the litterbox, so that enthusiastic pawing won't just shovel litter straight through. We've also put down a folded towel just outside the "door" to scrub the kitty paws of what sticks to them.
It's made a SIGNIFICANT amount of difference in the tracked litter in the hallway.
It took M an afternoon's hard work, but cost-wise it was negligible - the local architectural salvage had the "orphan cabinet" on sale for $5 and we had everything else around the house already. (Like my father, I throw nothing out. It may come in handy someday - and the thing is, when it comes to projects like this, it does!)
What M did:
1) Scrub the cabinet thoroughly inside and out.
2) Take some heavy vinyl wallpaper and not just stick it down on the "bottom" but also run it partially up the sides and caulk all the edges to make sure litter didn't get into crevices/missed "shots" wouldn't ruin the particleboard.
3) Measure height of existing litterbox and width of fattest cat (the one who got dubbed "SmallBearCat" in a previous post; that stuck, by the way!); mark 1" higher than litterbox (and a little bit wider than cat)
4) Use jigsaw to cut hole
5) Sand hole edges for cat comfort/safety
6) Attach handle.
And that was that.
I used to clean the bathroom and the kitchen with dedicated cloths soaked in windex. And for lick-and-a-promise convenience cleaning, that's not half bad, although I was buying insane amounts of windex because I'd end up soaking a rag, using it, and then washing most of the windex out of it.
Now, there are ways of making it better, but in my case, perfect isn't the enemy of good; perfect is the enemy of done at all. So at some point I'm going to find a more environmentally friendly way of doing this than using disposable wet swiffer pads. But until then, it's possible to fold a wet swiffer in thirds "upside down" and use 1/3 to wipe down your counter and sink, 1/3 to wipe down the toilet seat outside and in, and 1/3 to wipe down the shower walls and stall, then flip the thing over so it's dirty side up/clean side down and mop the bathroom floor with it.
The litterbox hack goes like this:
Shut, it's a nice little chest/two level storage unit made out of a sturdy corner cabinet:
Inside:
The opening is 1 inch higher than the lip of the litterbox, so that enthusiastic pawing won't just shovel litter straight through. We've also put down a folded towel just outside the "door" to scrub the kitty paws of what sticks to them.
It's made a SIGNIFICANT amount of difference in the tracked litter in the hallway.
It took M an afternoon's hard work, but cost-wise it was negligible - the local architectural salvage had the "orphan cabinet" on sale for $5 and we had everything else around the house already. (Like my father, I throw nothing out. It may come in handy someday - and the thing is, when it comes to projects like this, it does!)
What M did:
1) Scrub the cabinet thoroughly inside and out.
2) Take some heavy vinyl wallpaper and not just stick it down on the "bottom" but also run it partially up the sides and caulk all the edges to make sure litter didn't get into crevices/missed "shots" wouldn't ruin the particleboard.
3) Measure height of existing litterbox and width of fattest cat (the one who got dubbed "SmallBearCat" in a previous post; that stuck, by the way!); mark 1" higher than litterbox (and a little bit wider than cat)
4) Use jigsaw to cut hole
5) Sand hole edges for cat comfort/safety
6) Attach handle.
And that was that.
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no subject
Date: 2013-04-08 02:31 am (UTC)On another cat-related note, we're embarking on an adventure: Robin, just turned 11, has been diagnosed with diabetes. We're trying to wean him over to the diabetic diet, which effort is complicated by having three other cats in the house, and he's getting a small insulin shot every 12 hours.
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Date: 2013-04-08 09:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-08 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-09 09:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-09 04:46 pm (UTC)It would be an easier call if we hadn't massively stocked up just before this happened....
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Date: 2013-04-08 02:47 am (UTC)I bought myself a container of clorox wipes (well, the noname brand) - I think there's 100 of them in the container, and it was about $3? It's not super environmentally friendly, but I need all the help I can get to actually make cleaning more convenient, so I do it more often :D
no subject
Date: 2013-04-08 09:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-08 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-08 04:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-08 03:07 pm (UTC)We'd had to go with high, high, high sides due to a territorial spraying-over-the-edge of the litterbox, onto-the-wall-and-the-near-the-floor-wall-vent issue.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-09 09:35 am (UTC)