selling - what to do with cat litter trays during viewings

puddy

im putting my flat on the market next week, i HOPE that there will be some viewings in the next couple of weeks once its advertised. however, i am at the top floor with 2 indoor cats who obviously need to,,,,eliminate. Im worried that if i remove the trays, it'll be just my luck for the cats to need to go and do it on the carpet or something in the middle of a viewing. the trays are normally in the hall way and although they are 'toilets' not trays,,so they are covered up, they are still unsightly.

what do people do?

i am asking this because someone else has posted a thread about some mad woman criticising her house because the cat bowls were out,,, im certainly not worried about leaving the cat bowls out, they only eat dry food anyway so its not that stinky wet food, but i dont know what to do with the trays. its not like i have a garden to put them in, any of the cupboards in the house are storage cupboards so people will look in them..

thanks

PasturesNew

Cats need to know where their litter trays are. So if you can't move them for this reason, then I'd get 2 good looking new trays and put cat lit in them "ready". I'd also get a lidded storage box large enough to take 2 cat litter trays and I'd bung an old newspaper in there.

Immediately prior to a viewing I'd put the existing/used cat litter trays into the lidded storage box (using the newspaper to separate them). Then pull out the two prepared clean trays out for the viewing and hope my kitty didn't see a clean litter tray as an instruction to poop.

Immediately the viewing's over, stick the two shiny unused trays back in the cupboard and get the used ones out of the lidded storage box. Bin the newspaper if soiled and chuck another newspaper in the box for next time.

Apart from that, be aware that your flat will probably smell because of the litter trays, so investigate ways to deodorise that area on a continuous basis, so it never smelt during the selling/viewing time.

Bungarm2001

Can you not get a friendly neighbour or someone to have the cats AND the litter trays as and when you have a viewing??

Believe me, even tho the trays are clean, they will smell, as well as being unsightly. You won't notice 'cos you're used to it, but a prospective buyer will notice the aroma unless you spray the rooms or have a few plugins or whatever around.

To get the best chance of selling in this depressed market, you have to really think and see your home from a buyers point of view.

jeanette251978

Do what we did, put the trays in the CAR 5 minutes before they are due to arrive and lock the cats out!

lostinrates

First I'd recommend new litter trays with LIDS. You can leave the cat lappy bit off if your cats aren't used to them, ours learned pretty damn quickly though.

Also, the litter is important. It woul really upset me if people could smell the litter tray, so I put a mad amount of experimentation into what litter to use. At the moment, IMHO the best litter is called Moonlight clumping litter (I think). It is incredibly easy to keep clean and really does not smell of cats at all. We scoop every day, it takes about 2 minutes to scoop and dispose.

Its also VITAL that the area around the litter looks spotless, so make sure any 'tracking' is vacuumed up. That would rightly put peope off I think.
It IS possible to buy big wooden boxes to conceal litter but I think they are worse.

dobbie82

do you (or a friend) have a cat box, the type you'd use to take them to the vet. as you are in a flat you cant kick them out but i dont think half hour in the box would do them any harm?

Put them in the box, bin the litter, hoover the house, spray a bit of oust, and hope your viewers dont show up early?

loofah_3

I have exactly the same problem. My house has been on the market for nearly 4 weeks ( near Edinburgh, allegedly bucking the poor house sales trend...erm, not!) Unfortunately, I have not had any viewers but as an animal lover, have the same dilemma! I have 2 indoor cats and 2 dogs. The weather has been great the last few weeks so it has been easy to put the dogs/bowls/beds out in the garden for viewing time. The cats are not so easy... and they seem to pick exactly one minute before viewing time to use their tray! So, the suggestion of having a 'viewing' sparkling clean litter tray seems like a good idea and just shove the old stinky one outside anywhere when someone is due to come round!!

My house probably does smell of pets, but I feel that there are a lot of animal lovers out there who wiil 'smell' past it!? The people who won't or don't......are probably missing out on a fab house! My house has mainly laminate flooring which is so easy to clean and I have a set of 'soft furnishings' that I put out prior to viewing and then collect back in once viewing time is over!

Hope this helps! Any advice too, greatly appreciated!

justme111

do you remember in that thread we all agreed that lady was not going to buy a house anyways? So do not worry.
Smell becomes an issue if you leave trays unscooped, I take my cat's poo (really smelly!) out the next minute after she'd gone there so there are no smells of cat in my house. Of course it would be clever to change a litter before the viewing. I use CatSan

poet123

Sorry, but to people who dont have cats,houses which do always smell of cat. My SIL insists no one would know she had a cat,but this is not true.

Whether this affects their perception of the house would I suspect depend on how close to their perfect house it was,or whether thye were cat owners. Even being a cat owner is no guaranteee though, as if you think my house does not smell of cat,you may be put off by a house you consider is not as well cleaned as yours in that respect.

WillowCat

I've just sold (STC so fingers still firmly crossed!) our quite small bungalow. We've two cats and two litter trays, both of which are in the lounge - nowhere else to put them.

We made sure before each viewing that the trays had been scooped since last use and that was it. I don't know if any of the viewers noticed the trays and food, certainly no comments were made to us or the agents. About half the viewers were won over by our big soppy Maine Coon so they probably wouldn't have cared anyway.

I think the point is, that if your property is priced right, for it's size, condition and location, it will sell. I think that people who moan about toys or cat bowls, really, in their hearts want a new house or a newly renovated property. They don't want "second hand" aka "a lived in home". So sorting out the litter trays won't be enough to get them on board, while a serious buyer for a home will see past it.

Good luck!

ali-t

litter trays would put me off as i am not a cat person. When i was selling my flat I put my dog in her cage in one of the rooms but it wasn't ideal. in future I would put the dog in the car but for cats they would go in a cage and be put in the car or with a neighbour. The smell of cat poo permeates EVERYTHING...