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Make room for a cat in a small apartment

We turn veterinary guidelines, published studies and makers’ spec sheets into numbers you can check with a tape measure, so you know what fits before you buy anything or move a single chair.

Start here
Browse the six topics
  • Every number linked to its source
  • Researched, not tested
  • Measured for renters
Tabby cat with white paws sitting on a rug beside a sofa in a small apartment

Free tool

Measure before you buy

Pick what you are sizing up and type a number or two. The answer comes back against what vets and published studies say, drawn to scale, in inches or centimeters. Nothing you type is saved or sent.

How each answer is worked out

What are you measuring?

Is the litter box long enough?

in
in

Starts at 18 in: grown cats average 18 to 20 in (46 to 51 cm) from the nose to the base of the tail, says Britannica. Type your own cat’s length for a real answer.

How to measure your cat

While the cat stands, run a soft tape from the tip of its nose along the back to where the tail starts, not to the tail tip. No soft tape? Lay a piece of string along the same line, then measure the string. Take two readings and use the longer one.

Box at least 27 in long (69 cm)

The rule: a box one and a half times the cat’s length or more, from the AAFP and ISFM house-soiling guidelines (2014). Many boxes sold in stores are shorter.

Plan a whole spot to scale in the space-fit planner

Start from the problem

What’s the problem?

Pick whatever sounds most like your week. You get the guide to read first, then a tool and a topic page to keep open beside it.

The litter box smells

Fix the routine before you buy anything: daily scooping and a regular full wash do most of the work.

Start with stopping litter box smell at the source

No room for a cat tree

Look at the base before the height, since the base is what your floor gives up. Shelves and window perches add height with no base at all.

Start with small cat trees, base against height

The cat goes for the couch

Give it somewhere better to scratch, right beside the spot it already uses: a sturdy post tall enough for a full stretch.

Start with moving the scratching from the sofa to a post

A bored cat

A bored indoor cat is often missing one step of a hunt: something to stalk, chase, catch and then eat.

Start with toys for bored cats, matched to the hunt

Going away for a few days

No vet body we read sets a safe number of days alone, so plan around a sitter’s visits rather than a time limit.

Start with leaving a cat alone: what the sources say

A new cat is coming

Ready one small room first; the rest of the home can open up once the cat settles.

Start with the new cat checklist and what to buy

Adding a second cat

Two cats usually mean three litter boxes in three separate spots, each sized for the longer cat.

Start with litter boxes for two cats

Renting, or moving out

Choose things that come down without a trace: no drilling, and nothing stuck to the walls.

Start with renting with a cat, every renter guide in one place

Six topics

Pick a topic

Black-and-white cat sitting beside a plain gray litter box in a small bathroom corner

Litter

Box size, how many boxes, where they fit in a studio, and which litter keeps the smell down. Most small-home trouble starts here.

Orange cat resting on the top of three wall shelves above a small sofa

Small space

Cat trees, wall shelves, window perches and scratchers that suit a rental and its lease.

Calico cat drinking from a water bowl on one side of a small kitchen, its timed feeder set well apart across the floor

Feeding and water

Feeders, fountains and bowls, with the footprints and filter costs their makers publish.

Tuxedo cat peeking out of a cardboard box with round holes cut in it

Enrichment

Play, food puzzles and toys for a cat that never goes outside.

Brown tabby cat sitting in a blanket-covered hiding box in a quiet bedroom

Care

Bringing a new cat home, time alone, sitters and moving day.

Gray cat curled beside a hand-drawn floor plan, a pencil and a tape measure

Tools

A space-fit planner, a play planner, a cost calculator and sheets to print.

Recently published

Latest guides

First weeks

New cat, small home: the first four moves

  1. Give it one small room to start, with food and water away from the litter box and a hiding spot you can get to.
  2. Plan on a slow settling-in. Shelters expect about 3 days of decompressing, 3 weeks of learning the routine and 3 months before a cat feels settled.
  3. Buy two litter boxes, even for one cat. Veterinary guidelines count one per cat plus one.
  4. Leave the carrier out from day one, so it is a familiar bed by the time of the first vet visit.

Print the new cat checklist before adoption day, then follow the 3-3-3 rule guide through the first months. Start here sorts the rest by situation, from a cat hiding under the bed to a walk-up full of litter bags, with a setup list you can tick off.

Our method

How we research

Every number on these pages links to where it came from: a veterinary guideline, a published study or the maker’s own spec sheet, with the date we read it. We do not test products, and every page that names one says so at the top. When the evidence is thin or the experts disagree, the page tells you that as well.

Read how we research