5 Ways to Minimize Cat Litter Tracking

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Purina. All opinions are 100% mine.

While I’m a dog lover too, I especially love our cats. We do hope to get a dog again some day when we live in a house that has a yard for them to run around in, but since we currently live in a townhouse, cats seem to be the best pet choice. Even though the litter box can be smelly, icky, a pain to clean and downright grody, it is SO nice to have the cats use the litter box instead of having to let them out at all hours.

5 Ways to Minimize Cat Litter Tracking

However, one thing that totally drives me nuts about the litter box (other than cleaning it of course ;)) is how the floor seems to get turned into a beach, and not the kind I want to walk in either. Sometimes the cats don’t even cover their pee, but other times they dig dig dig, and when they dig, they really dig. That means cat. litter. everywhere. So, I wanted to share these 5 ways to minimize cat litter tracking.

1. Use a heavy litter. These days wheat and corn cat litters have become more popular for a variety of reasons. However, they are really lightweight and tend to track a lot more than heavier cat litters such as clay.

2. Use a high-sided litter box. While covered litter boxes aren’t generally recommended because you can forget to clean them, they trap odors and larger cats aren’t as comfortable, they can greatly reduce litter being flung all over your floor. Another alternative is to use a high-sided litter box. This way, when your cat digs, it’s not as likely to spill over onto the floor. Just make sure the box has an indention on one side so they can  get in and out easily, or you may get even more litter tracking as they jump out.

3. Use a mat. Placing a mat to catch the litter under the litter box is a great way to contain the litter in one area. There are specialty mats for this, but with our huge litter box, we have just used a large outdoor mat when we had it on a hard floor in the past. Then you can just clean the mat weekly or so instead of having to sweep every nook and cranny in a 10-foot radius.

4. Vacuum or sweep regularly. Luckily, our cats don’t seem to spread litter much more than a few inches away from the litter box itself. However, they can get the litter stuck on their paws and track it throughout the entire house. So, you want to make sure you vacuum or sweep the floor around the litter box regularly. I keep a small vacuum to the side of the box and just do a quick run over whenever I scoop.

5. Don’t put in too much litter. Cats really only need about 3 - 4 inches of litter in their litter boxes to use them efficiently and be happy, even if you have multiple cats. If you use much more than that, you’ll only increase how much cat litter gets tracked through your house, yuck!

I’ve always had problems with not putting too much cat litter in because the bags are always huge and heavy and a bit tough for me to handle when completely full. That means more often than not, much more litter gets into the box than I wanted because I can’t control it, ugh.  So, when I recently stopped by our local store and saw Tidy Cats Lightweight 24/7 Performance Litter I was super excited. We use Tidy Cats® a lot, and this new cat litter is the same clumping litter we love, but in smaller and lighter - aka much easier for me to handle - packaging. I can’t wait to try this litter the next time we need to stock up!

Check out this video for more information:

What’s your least favorite part of cleaning the litter box?