Good sturdy construction, but was smaller than expected. The reason I decided to buy this particular litter box is because I wanted something with high sides that wasn’t completely covered. My kitten digs quite furiously in her litter box sometimes, and I found that the kind I had before (same size, but the height was what this litter box would be without the white part attached) would result in a lot of spilled litter all over my floor which would then track to the rest of my room. I had bought the old box recently for $4 from target and don’t really believe in spending more than $10 on a litter box, because I don’t think any box can last longer than six months because eventually the odor will sort of seep into the plastic. I only bought the Target box a month ago and the plastic has already picked up a foul odor even after washing (but I didn’t use bleach, which means I probably didn’t clean it as thoroughly as I could have). I don’t believe in using litter box liners, because I find that a box of good quality liners ends up costing as much as a decent, sturdy litter box, and therefore I can just replace the entire box rather than spending more money on liners and making the entire experience unpleasant for my cat, since there is no way her claws won’t scratch through the liner and get caught in it.I have noticed many negative reviews about the construction of this box. It seems however, that those people are either not using clumping litter, aren’t sifting properly before scooping, or haven’t filled enough litter in the box. Recently I discovered the sifting method and it has made life a lot easier. Before, I used to literally scoop the clumps out by digging. When sifting, what you do is tilt the box from the short side, and hit that side a few times, so that all that has sunk to the bottom (which usually won’t happen if you have enough litter in there) will fall in with the rest of the litter. Then you can use a spray (make sure it’s not citrus scented) cleaner or pre-moistened wipes to clean any residue stuck to the bottom or the walls that were previously covered with litter. Then, little by little use the scooper to bring all the clean litter back to tilted side, and the clumps will be easily visible and you’ll be able to pick them up without breaking them. You can then tilt the other side to see if anything is stuck on the bottom/corners. That way, you cover all 4 corners and honestly it doesn’t take more than 2 minutes. I have just one cat, but I do this twice a day and it’s no big deal.As for this particular litter box, it has made my life easier in that my cat is no longer able to spill litter all over the floor and the opening, where there is a depression in the white part, is wide and spacious enough for my cat to easily climb in and out. I don’t like the idea of covered boxes, because the odor stays inside, which means it quickly becomes an unpleasant place for my cat to be, and I am terrified of her deciding to use my floor as her toilet one day. Also, the scoop it comes with is way better than the scoops I had been using, because it is flatter, and I’ve found that those allow clean litter to fall out more quickly. Although I wish that the crevices through which the clean litter falls out were smaller, as sometimes the tiny pieces fall through as well, it’s still better than what I had before.The only reason I took one star off is because I expected this box to be a bit more spacious. My kitten is pretty small, and yet the first time she went in there, she got some poop on the white part, because when turning over, her bottom touches it; if the sides weren’t high, the size would be appropriate, because then, my cat would be taller than the sides and it wouldn’t feel cramped. She definitely adjusted to the higher sides quite quickly, because this problem didn’t happen again. But perhaps this box, even though they say it is large, wouldn’t be appropriate for a large, or even regular sized cat, since it feels a bit small for my tiny kitten. As much as I like the construction of this box, in the future, I will probably opt to just buy a Sterilite storage box with high sides and cut an opening into the side as many people do.
