How to clean a cat’s litter box: daily scooping and a weekly wash

Step by step: how to clean a cat’s litter box

Safety first. Wear gloves and wash your hands after handling litter. If you are pregnant or have a weakened immune system, ask someone else to clean the box; if you must do it, wear gloves, scoop daily and wash your hands well. Do not clean the box with bleach mixed with anything, and avoid ammonia cleaners.

1. 1

   Scoop waste every day

   Put on gloves and sift the scoop through the litter, lifting out urine clumps and stool. Get into the corners and along the bottom, where clumps stick. Bag the waste, tie it, and put it in an outdoor trash can.

2. 2

   Top up the litter

   Add fresh litter after scooping so the box stays about 2 to 3 inches deep. Too shallow and urine reaches the plastic, which is what causes most lingering smell. Too deep and some cats will not use it.

3. 3

   Dump all the litter once a week

   Pour the old litter into a trash bag, tapping the box to loosen stuck patches. Scrape off anything caked to the bottom with the scoop. Do not flush cat litter or waste down the toilet unless the bag says it is flushable and your plumbing and local rules allow it.

4. 4

   Wash the box with warm water and unscented soap

   Take the box outside or to a utility sink or bathtub. Scrub it with warm water and a little unscented dish soap or a paste of baking soda, using a brush you keep only for this job. Clean the lid, the door flap and the rim too, where spray collects.

5. 5

   Rinse and dry completely

   Rinse until no soap smell is left, since cats can avoid a box that smells of cleaner. Dry it with towels or in the sun. Clay and clumping litter turn to paste in a wet box.

6. 6

   Refill with fresh litter

   Pour in 2 to 3 inches of unscented litter and set the box back in the same quiet spot. Most cats prefer clumping, unscented litter, so switch slowly if you change brands by mixing new into old over a week.

7. 7

   Clean the area around the box

   Vacuum or sweep scattered litter and wipe the floor and nearby wall. Wash the litter mat. Clean any accidents nearby with an enzyme cleaner made for pet urine rather than an ammonia product.

8. 8

   Wash your hands and the scoop

   Rinse the scoop with hot water and soap, let it dry, and store it by the box. Take off your gloves and wash your hands with soap and water, even if you wore gloves.

How often should you clean a litter box?

Scoop at least once a day and wash the whole box once a week. The ASPCA recommends scooping at least daily and, once a week, cleaning the box with warm water and unscented soap, baking soda or no soap, and completely replacing the litter.

Keep one box per cat plus one extra, in quiet spots that are easy to reach. More boxes means each one stays cleaner between scoops.

What should you clean a litter box with?

Use warm water with unscented dish soap or baking soda. Strong scents bother cats, and the ASPCA warns that cats can develop an aversion to scented cleaners and to scented litter, which can lead to accidents elsewhere in the house.

• Avoid ammonia. Urine contains ammonia, so an ammonia-based cleaner can make a spot smell like a toilet to your cat and invite repeat accidents.
• Skip citrus and pine cleaners and air fresheners right next to the box.
• Bleach only if you need to disinfect (for example after an illness): use it diluted on its own, never mixed with ammonia, vinegar or other cleaners, then rinse very well and air the box out until no smell remains.

If the house smells of cat even with a clean box, the smell is often from old accidents. Our guide on how to get rid of cat pee smell covers finding and treating them.

Is cleaning a litter box safe during pregnancy?

It is safer to have someone else do it. Cat feces can carry Toxoplasma, a parasite that MedlinePlus notes is most serious for people with weak immune systems and for babies whose mothers are infected for the first time during pregnancy.

Timing matters. Cornell’s Feline Health Center explains that it takes at least 24 hours for the parasite’s eggs in cat feces to become infective, so removing feces every day, wearing gloves, and washing your hands afterward lowers the chance of infection. The same applies to gardening in soil where cats may go.

Mistakes to avoid

• Scooping every few days instead of daily, so urine soaks through to the plastic.
• Washing the box with a scented or ammonia-based cleaner that makes the cat avoid it.
• Putting fresh litter into a box that is still damp from washing.
• Keeping only one box for two or more cats.
• Moving the box to a new spot at the same time you change litter brands.