New poop cabinet!

Little Miss Crawler is getting into all our business now, including the cats' business, so I figured it was time to work out something with the cat commode. The last thing I wanted to see was Elsa fishing around in the cat box for a turd or pee brick to play with so I turned to the IKEA Hacker website to get some inspiration. I knew I wanted an enclosed cabinet for the litter box, with enough room to also store their litter accoutrements, but some of the pre-made ones sold specifically for this purpose are in the hundreds of dollars. Um, no thanks. It's a poop cabinet, not vintage Danish Modern.

The IKEA Hacker website didn't give me too many great plans, so Jeff and I just went down to the store to see what was the cheapest cabinet that could work. We found the lovely Flåren discounted to $99 (from $250 so it was a good deal) because it's being discontinued and thought it'd work perfectly. It was the exact size I wanted, solid wood, and plain enough to not be too offensive design-wise. 

We put it together when we got home and started the several day process of getting the cats to see it as no big deal, this is where your litter box always was! We turned it around at first so the back was open and they could just cruise right in. Then the next day Jan came over and we borrowed Jerod's jigsaw to cut out the hole in the top piece, and installed it but kept the doors open so the boys would have the option of side entry or top entry. Day #3, doors got closed and I held my breath. The morning of Day 4, litter bits on the top of the cabinet and pee bricks in the box! SUCCESS! My cats are so smart.

So it was an easy transition, and with a baby cabinet lock on the doors now, totally inaccessible to Miss Elsa. By the time E is tall enough to reach into the hole, she'll know that cat poop is gross and not something you want to play with. Hopefully.