Dishes and Cats

[maryanna630]

We are in the process of moving into our new Begonia in Lake Deaton. I am having two issues and hope you can help me....again.
1) we have three cats and cannot figure out where to put their litter box, litter etc. The laundry room has no space so that won't work.....any suggestions?
2) where do you put your dishes? Do you use the pot drawer? The shelves in the upper cabinets are rather shallow. I do cook and I am naving some difficulties as to where to put cooking items and small appliances as well. The other issue is that the house came with undercabinet lighting...very nice...but because of the light rail there is only 15 inches between the counter and the cabinets. We cannot even fit our coffee machine under the cabinets.
K know these are very minor items in the scheme of things but our cats run the house and we need them to be happy!
As always, thanks for all the suggestions.....

[asianthree]

We are in the process of moving into our new Begonia in Lake Deaton. I am having two issues and hope you can help me....again.
1) we have three cats and cannot figure out where to put their litter box, litter etc. The laundry room has no space so that won't work.....any suggestions?
2) where do you put your dishes? Do you use the pot drawer? The shelves in the upper cabinets are rather shallow. I do cook and I am naving some difficulties as to where to put cooking items and small appliances as well. The other issue is that the house came with undercabinet lighting...very nice...but because of the light rail there is only 15 inches between the counter and the cabinets. We cannot even fit our coffee machine under the cabinets.
K know these are very minor items in the scheme of things but our cats run the house and we need them to be happy!
As always, thanks for all the suggestions.....
So you are having the same problems as many others. This sounds really stupid but on our patio villa I had more cabinet space that than I do in my designer. I also I'm having difficulty because I have every day dishes and every day China that I like to use. Do you have cabinets in your laundry room to possibly store extra dishes. We are going to have to add extra cabinets in our laundry room just for that purpose. As for the cat litter is it possible that you can use one of the bathrooms.

[tomwed]

Litter Box Ideas from Pinterest

[jnieman]

We bought one of those doors that lets the kitty cat go out on the lanai. It fits in your slider. We also made a rod to go in the door so it cannot be opened by a burglar at night or you can just bring in the litter box at night. We put our litter box on the lanai behind a chair in the corner. Worked very well for us and with 3 cats the fresh air will take away the odors.
Kitty may be hesitant to go through the plastic door so you may need to leave it open for a while until they get used to it.

[bluedivergirl]

I have a Gardenia ~ very similar to the Begonia. We've ordered two matching 12" pantry cabinets for the nook. We could squeeze in 15", but don't want to crowd the window. We don't plan to use the nook as an eating area.

I plan to put pantry foods in the new cabinets, and use the existing pantry for appliance and quick food (soup, bread, etc) storage. DH is putting a mixer lift in one of the cupboards near the sink.

After we live with those changes for a bit, we will consider a rolling center island. I really don't have enough space for a fixed center island (and can't get elec to it).

We ordered the cabinets from Pro Source Orlando, for about $2,000.00 for the pantry and the trimwork. They will be an exact match to the existing.

DH will do the install. It is pretty straightforward.

[HimandMe]

We have our little box (like the former poster) in the lanai in a cat cabinet but....we are thinking about getting a cat Genie. If we stack our W/D and lose one cupboard, it will fit alongside. The cat genie flushes into the washer's water drain by adding a simple Y to the drain. Then...ta da !!! No more scooping. It's automatic. My daughter has had one for years and we have been hunting for space. We live in the smallest 2200sf home ever...our 2000 sf home was much larger! It is how they measure. I wish they had of left some space in some of the rooms for our things....but then, we came here believing less is more.

[villagetinker]

Our Gardenia has a sink (instead of the counter top and cabinet), and we put the litter box under the sink. If you have the cabinet, you can do what I have seen others do, cut a hole in the side of the cabinet, if possible and put litter box inside. If this is not possible, perhaps you can remove the doors, and have curtain in front of the cabinet so the cats can get in.
And for an off the wall idea, you might be able to put in a cat door to the garage, and then have a cage in the garage with the litter box.
OK I am out of ideas, hope these help.
PS in our Gardenia, the cabinets are 18.5 inches from the counter top, this is sufficient room for our appliances, while not cheap, can your cabinets be raised?

[Bonny]

We had our litter box in the master bath under the counter where they put the make up counter so it's open underneath.

[ragdolls]

We live in a gardenia and put a kitty door in the door going out into garage. Litter box is in garage and love it. Out of sight and no odor at all. Hope this helps.

[maryanna630]

Thanks, Ragdolls. Did you just go thru the existing garage door? Do you let the cats just go loose in the garage or did you make some kind of enclosure? Any info would be helpful.

[Villager Joyce]

We have the kitty litter In the closet in one of the spare bedrooms . I lined the floor With a heavy plastic table cloth. Using a spring loaded curtain rod, i hung a plastic shower Curtain across the door opening. Works for us.

[fjsimone]

We have a Gardenia and dedicate a closet to the cats litter needs.
Works well as long a one makes sure to get fresh boxes. Our ladies remind me if
I fall behind.��

[CFrance]

We live in a gardenia and put a kitty door in the door going out into garage. Litter box is in garage and love it. Out of sight and no odor at all. Hope this helps.
I would think if you did that, you would have to either keep your garage door closed at all times, or have a screen installed, which is around $2K.

In our Begonia, we had a pantry designed for the nook and built for $3K--included electrical work and installation--which perfectly matches our cabinets. It is two long cabinets on either side, three drawers on the bottom between the two long cabinets, cabinets on top between the long cabinets, and a coffee station in the middle that holds the coffeemaker, espresso machine, and toaster. It fits nicely in the breakfast nook and holds all my baking items, miscellaneous serving ware, a container of our dog's kibble, tupperware in one of the drawers, phone books and junk in the bottom drawer, etc. All coffee supplies in the cabinets above the coffee station. We had the chandelier removed and a pot light put in its place. There is still room for a small table and chairs, although we don't need one.

I keep my coffee cups there too, freeing up a lot of room in the dishes/glasses cabinet, which is beside the fridge. Beside the fridge we keep a whole dish service for 8 on the two shelves of that cabinet, with the glasses on the top shelf.

In the pantry I keep food and some baking items. My husband uses the whole upper cabinet to the right of the stove for snacks & spices he keeps for cooking. I keep frequently used baking items in the cab. to the left. the other cabs to the left of that hold frequently used wineglasses, measuring cups, corning ware, spices in the little corner cabinet at the end, and I've given one cabinet over to cookbooks.

Pots and pans in the bottom cabs.

Another purchase we made is a 72" buffet for the dining room to hold other dishes, wineglasses, serving platters.

Hope that helps a little.

[pattytracey]

does anyone one need a main coon cat?

[ragdolls]

Yes just cut thru existing door. When u purchase the cat door it comes with a template. Just take the door off and put on saw horses and mark the template and cut the door in. Cats love it and roam and play in garage for hours. Then come in the house as they wish. U will love having litter box in the garage and no traces of litter in your home. Good luck.

[Barefoot]

...

[maryanna630]

Wow, CF France, you are detailed and organized. Thanks so much!

[Barefoot]

...

[CFrance]

does anyone one need a main coon cat?
pattytracey, is this the Maine Coon you rescued from Dafoe when her daughter didn't want the cat and a baby at the same time?

I hope you're just joking!

[redwitch]

If you don't use your bathtub, it's a great spot for the litter box. Just be sure the drain is closed and covered. Putting something like a beach towel or old rug under the cat box makes it easy to clean. And rather than a regular cat box, use a plastic bin -- less cat sand spread around. The biggest plus is no bending when you clean the box.

[villagetinker]

Maryanna360, another thought just occurred, we added a window seat in the nook area for additional storage, I think a previous poster also did something like this. With a minor modification, this could provide a place for the litter box.
For some reason the photo I attached is not showing up in the preview mode, so I am not sure you will be able to see it. Will try a PM latter.

[gap2415]

We live in a gardenia and put a kitty door in the door going out into garage. Litter box is in garage and love it. Out of sight and no odor at all. Hope this helps.

You could add a screen door to the garage door and put the kitty door in the bottom half. I think Home Depot also sells these doors w the pet door in it already.....but...a cat genie litter box sounds like the best idea.

[Waverunner]

We have a Lantana, but faced some of the same kitchen storage problems.

We took the top "pot" drawer and put a board with pegs system in to hold our dishes. We have filled this drawer with place settings and various pieces for 16.

We had Summers Cabinet (who did our original cabinet installation) install an extra pantry cabinet with five pull out drawers, that extends slightly into our nook area. (We had to have an electrician move an electrical outlet switch that was where the cabinet was installed.) We also had Summers change the 9 inch narrow cabinet, (originally set up for cookie sheets storage), to a pull out spice rack with four shelves. They reuse the original 9" door for this change.

We have multiple stainless steel shelves that each have five shelves (appx. 72" high by 48" wide X 18" deep) that we use for storage in the garage. (Appx. $75 each from Lowes.) We took one of them for exclusive use of our extra kitchen stuff which is totally enclosed with a zippered cover with a plastic front. The zippered cover we purchased is called a "Stor-Pod", which we bought from the Container Store. (You can see photos on their website.) We also bought shelf liners for each shelf, so nothing slips through.

After trying a couple of different configurations, we ended up putting our Keurig coffee maker to the right of our kitchen sink. It is slightly under the cabinet but opens fully (to the left of the cabinet). We then stored coffee cups and coffee "stuff" in the cabinet directly above. The big plus here is that any coffee mess can be swept easily into the sink.

These changes helped make all the difference to us making our kitchen functional and to keep all of our stuff, with places for everything.

[maryanna630]

Wow, great ideas! Waverunner, we like the idea of using the pot drawer and adding another pantry and love the spice pullout cabinet!
Villagetinker, please pm me with the photo of the window seat...great idea....by the way, we lived in Allentown for 20 years!
Keep the ideas coming, please.

[lovinganimals]

We keep our litterbox in the garage also but here are some things to be aware of: fist off, we do have a screen garage door and we keep it closed so if we open the garage, the cats still can not get out. And this means you can't park your car in the garage because the cats are there. Second, my husband could not cut a hole in the door from the laundry room to the garage (We have a courtyard villa) because it is a fire door and if there was ever a fire, his thought were that insurance might not pay due to that so we put the kitty door in the door from the dining room to the laundry room and keep that shut. We then keep the door from the laundry room to the garage open half way so they can get in there, but shut the register in the ceiling so we are not air conditioning the laundry room, garage, and world outside.
Also, be aware that even though we have a garage screen and keep it closed, I get a terrible amount of gnats at the litter box. I have hung fly strips but this is a bad idea. If they are hung high, the gnats stay low near the litter and don't get stuck. If they are hung low, which I originally did, you end up with cats with very sticky glue all over them and then you have to shave them! Bad decision to do that!! I tried the litterbox in the laundry room but you know how litter is. It gets all over and even though you sweep, you still end up stepping on pieces of it and it tracks all over. Good luck. I love reading everyone's ideas!

[ragdolls]

Yes and cat door comes with a template for u to trace and saw. Very easy to install. My cats just roam the entire garage if they wish. U will love the litter box in your garage. Good luck👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[pbkmaine]

We keep covered cat boxes in the two closets in the master bedroom and leave the doors ajar. We have ionizers in each closet and clean the boxes daily, so there do not seem to be odor issues. Another suggestion - replace doors on sink cabinet in bathrooms or laundry room with a curtain and rod and put cat box under sink.

[CFrance]

Yes and cat door comes with a template for u to trace and saw. Very easy to install. My cats just roam the entire garage if they wish. U will love the litter box in your garage. Good luck👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I think I'm missing something. What keeps you from running over one of your cats that happens to be in the garage when you come home from shopping or whatever? Or what keeps the cats from running out of the garage when you open the garage door?

[dbussone]

I think I'm missing something. What keeps you from running over one of your cats that happens to be in the garage when you come home from shopping or whatever? Or what keeps the cats from running out of the garage when you open the garage door?


My thoughts as well.

[jpvillager]

We settled on the kitty door in the door going out into garage. Our cat had a chip so we used that type of door. It only lets the cat with the programed in chip into the house. I do not like the lanai if you only have screens. Cats could escape, ours did, and critters might go after the cat. Although, I have never heard of it happening.