Cat's Litter Box versus Good Feng Shui
Saturday August 16, 2008
Where do you place the cat's litter box without creating any bad feng shui vibes? Your bathroom is not the best place, as ideally you want a spa feel in your bathroom, a kind of gentle retreat for your early mornings and late nights. So where do you place the cat litter box, then, if you live in a relatively small space?
I do not have cats so would not know all the aspects, or requirements for the cat's litter box. But I can certainly say it is bad feng shui to have the cat's litter box in the kitchen or dining (yes, I have seen that!) or in the bedroom (have seen that, too.)
Read more at the feng shui forum
Photo: (c) Dominic Morel
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There are many kinds of Feng Shui. The west (USA) has adopted China’s original holistic practice and turned it into a quick fix some call the “McDonalds of Feng Shui”. This method is known as Black Sect. Classic Feng Shui has been studied for over 6,000 years and uses over a dozen sciences to evaluate a space. Rather than using bamboo, fountains, and a bagua (layout) to determine and correct the energy of a home, classic Feng Shui uses a holistic approach which takes into account compass directions, the year a building was built, and much more. There is no “one size fits all” answer due to the fact that every home and person is different. To learn more about authentic Feng Shui, visit intuitiveconcept.com.
great advertising there jaquie, but it didn’t even address the question let alone begin to broach an answer. i will not be going to intuitiveconcept.com where jackie can answer my questions in an un-intuitive way – thanks!
I do own cats – and i can tell you a few things i’ve noticed. The +1 rule only applies when the cats are not boilogically related and have not been together since birth – though mother/father/offspring relationships will tend to need this ‘rule’ to be followed.
Lidded litterboxes work well if your cat is over-enthusiastic about covering his leavings, but trap smell and can make the cat feel uncomfortable if it is a noisy area – the best place is in a room near an open window(even slightly open), under a table for these covered litterboxes. With these – try remember that your cat is almost as grossed out by the box as you are – KEEEP IT CLEAN not only for your sense of smell but to prevent him finding other areas such as your laundry basket.
If you are in a small condo, in a high rise building, the best option is the balcony! not only does this remove the problem from your living space, but it also forces you to keep the door open and let fresh air into the house. – though do not put the litterbox right next to the door on the floor. Heat rises and cold air sinks, the air coming into your apartment will generally enter through the lower half of the entry and you might end up sucking the smell into your place.
Many people are very wary of leaving the door open – the first thing you should do for your feng shui is leave your paranoia at the door, if you’re in a high rise, chances are there aren’t going to be any people breaking in through the balcony.
I live in a LOW-rise building and not on the best side of town and live with my door open 8 months a year. I’ve found not only that i wake up breathing easier, but smells dissipate faster and my cats are happier and friendlier because they get as much fresh air and time in the sun as they want.
many people are moving towards these new automatic boxes… DON’T EVEN think about it! they are loud, almost with out exception. they also require more cat litter and usually only work half decently with the most expensive cat litter. Cats like to cover what they leave and chances are with one of these the efforts of the machine will be nullified by the cat scratching untill there’s litter all over your floor.
Over-filling the littebox usually ends up creating a smellier one too, but not filling enough means it will either end up on the floor or in a pile in the corner of the box with nothing really covered. You want to fill to about 1.75 – 2.5 inches deep and have a box with walls on three sides that are higher than the cats knees and lower than his back and make sure the walls are vertical, not slanted outwards.
i found another good place for it, when you have no balcony, is behind the front door. most of the smell will dissipate out the front door instead of into your home if you follow a few tricks within the SCIENCES of thermal dynamics and the dynamics of vorticies(the sciences of how air flows / is pulled in spaces or at different temperatures)
Example:
by opening a window in one room to allow for twice the flow of air of that through the front door, and by setting the heat higher in a different room than that of the room with the open window, you can create a vortex – a space where air is forced to move. the heat will flow out of the warmer room and move towards the door and window and the air from the window will fill the space of the warm air leaving.
The best way to play with these dynamics in your home is to light some incense when the place is at the ideal temperature and then open doors and windows untill you get the desired flow, then re-adjust the temperature if it changes dramatically. Remember that airflow usually follows principals not numbers and that these openings don’t have to be large if they are in the correct ratio or proportion.