Litter boxes on top of washer/dryer?

Laundry rooms create noise and vibration which I would think would be disconcerting to a kitty trying to do their business, and there has been someone on the forum before that posted about their kitty dying in a drier related incident, so not sure I would risk that. Besides, no litterbox is perfectly odor absorbing, so wouldn't really want that scent ingrained on my clothes I'm trying to refresh.

I put mine in two different closets, and just put a small cat door on the bottom with a motion activated battery powered night-light that was cheap at home-depot.

Nice and quiet place for them, convenient and out of sight for me, and is the only sure fire way IMO to avoid being one of those houses where people step in, take one breath, and go... oh... you have cats huh?


A white instead of tinted see-thru one would have been less noticeable, but still like it.

IMHO not a good idea Kara... If kitty decides to do their business while the machine is working, it can get startled and traumatized.... Then you got a problem. It can take a long time and a lot of work to remove that trauma from the litterbox; while that is going on, you have peeing outside of the box, which will create a vicious cycle... Not good.

I would not put boxes in the laundry room, and never, ever on the top of the machines.

I know my mom's front-loader washer vibrates a lot when it's spinning. I'm not sure if that would be a good thing for a litterbox. The cats might not want to get up there. The dryer might be OK, but it still will make noise when it's on, and I don't know how sensitive your kitties are to things like that.

Would your cats use the litterbox while the washer and dryer are turned on? Would that scare them?

My drier at least is worse. The washer seems more gentle and muffles, but all it takes is forgetting a pocket knife, belt buckle, or something in a pocket to cause a racket in that drier that throws things about. I've scared myself doing that before, heh! *CLANG!!!CLANG!!!CLANG!!!* woops...

Yeah, I wouldn't put a litterbox with food or hanging clothes either. Mine just has other storage stuff in there. Dang.

Isn't Sebastian peeing outside of the box? I know it is probably unrelated, but it is one of the recommended things... To move them out of the laundry room just in case...

We have one of ours in the laundry room, one in the spare bedroom (isolation room), and one in the corner of the living room. The living room is not ideally located, but we had a kitty peeing on the carpet in there many years ago so we put it in there to encourage proper peeing. It worked and it's been there ever since.

I would never put a litter box on top of a washer/dryer. If the cat needs to go and the machines are on - then they will avoid those litter boxes!

A suggestion would be to get some of the "furniture hiding litter boxes" - where the cabinet looks like a piece of your furniture but inside is the litter box with access thru a hole on the sides.

Google cat litter box furniture and you'll find a cool amount of different and clever ways to disguise the litter box.

Is anyone else imaging the vibrations of the washer or dryer slowly vibrating the litter box off and onto the floor? Maybe it wouldn't (if the appliances were level) but it's amusing to imagine.

I have litter boxes out in the open in the den, hallway, and my bedroom. The one in the living room is behind a screen - which you can even get some made for hiding litter boxes.
Sometimes you have to give up what's convenient to you and settle for what's best for the health of your pet, and when you have multiple cats this means multiple boxes throughout the house. One reason for this is because of small dominance issues between cats. Such as other recent posts have mentioned is happening with Nora. Space them out and the cats get a semblance of privacy that many cats do appreciate.

Sometimes hiding a box can be as simple as stashing it behind a chair.

As for not wanting the boxes sitting on carpet, that's understandable. Go to a hardware store and get some plastic carpet runner large enough for the box to sit on. That or go to an office supply store and get a plastic mat that would go under a desk chair. Get creative and make solutions.

Oh, and I wouldn't want a litter box in a closet, either. Even if one was lucky enough to have a spare closet, wood and drywall are porous and will absorb the smell over time. It did this in my childhood home. And while you may not notice, a non cat owner would. That and some cats like closets as much as they do covered boxes.

You left wood trim and drywall unpainted? *scratching head* Also way easier to deodorize a smaller enclosed space in my experience, as you can apply a deodorizer and shut the door for quarantine w/ less hassle than treating a room with furniture IMO.

Yes, I completely failed to seal it when I was one year old. A terrible oversight on my part…

Everything was wood paneling, as was popular back then. There were a lot less litter choices, too. So after close to 9 years of use the closet smelled.

Out in the open smells dispates better than in a small confined space.

A big NO NO IMO. If cats get frightened by ANYTHING while doing their business they are VERY unlikely to ever go back to that particular box again. Putting them on top of the dryer/washing machine would cause the box to vibrate and even move due to the vibrating and possibly fall on the floor.

Same thing with those self-cleaning litter boxes, a friend of mine bought TWO of them and got rid of her older model boxes. Well the one got stuck and the motor kept running and making noise and both of her cats stopped going near those boxes and started using another spot in the house to pee. She got rid of them and put the old ones back and never had an problem again. Just saying, you have to be careful about putting litterboxes somewhere where they will get scared while using them. Then all bets are off that they will use that box again.

I think it depends on your cats and how they react to noises and vibrations. Memphis purposely seeks out the washer and dryer when they're on so he can get a free warm massage while he naps. I think I'd be able to put a box in there no problem, but many people have cats who are afraid of lou8d noises like the laundry or the vacuum and having a box in a loud area would be detrimental.

Your new place looks beautiful! And so bright & airy. I vote for a camoflage litterbox. I've seen some that were fake artificial trees, wooden houses, fake cabinets, all with openings in the back. We have ours in the laundry room but had to take off a regular door and put up a bi-fold door to make room in our new condo. Cats were a liitle spooky at first cause the furnace is in there also, but they adapted beautifully.

As far as odor, as we all know, keeping it clean is the answer no matter where it is. Our laundry room smells like fresh laundry. As far as ontop of the washer/dryer, I also would worry about cats as they age getting up there. Our elderly cat loved the top of the dryer, but had a hard time as he aged.

I wouldn't put it on a washing machine due to the vibrations. I wouldn't put it on top of a dryer because dryers get warm and you never want to discover the added aroma that pee makes when it is heated.