Money saving tip #8

NOTE: This post does contain my “affiliate” link from Amazon.  Which only means I might receive a nickel or dime if you click on the link below and purchase the product. (It hasn’t happened yet for me, so I’m not holding my breath)

I’m really anal about messy areas of the house, and the appearance of certain things. I love our fur baby, Merry, and if you haven’t met her yet, you can find out her story here. This cat has almost as many Instagram followers as me, and I’m sure she’ll surpass me soon.  Never underestimate the power of a cat. More power to her!

The other night, I was thinking, how can I make the clean up of her box a little easier, and make the area look a little nicer?   Shrink the size of her box, and have a less noticeable color. Boom.  Let her do her business in a food tray!

Well, I didn’t start out thinking about a food tray.  I needed to find something with a smaller footprint and a more neutral color. My search led me to hard plastic trays and this idea actually worked out.

My wife was skeptical at first and so was Merry.  (She dropped a deuce on the rug 2 times, in the morning before she finally warmed up to the idea)  However, they were both won over and happy for my little brainstorm.

Kaizen

In Japanese business, they have a term called “Kaizen”, which is the process of implementing very small changes, that will eventually add up to a much larger and positive change. This is usually implemented during the development of  processes or products.

It’s a concept that I’ve always tried to apply to our lives, but I never really had a name for it until a few years ago.  When I finally had it defined, I’d run around the house daily and say to my wife… “That was my Kaizen for today hun…what did you do?”  lol.

(Ok, I can be an ass sometimes, but this time I was applying an ass to Kaizen.)

Merry’s pink colored litter box was always a little bit too feminine for my taste, but it’s worked for years.  It also, stuck out a little bit too far, where our entry door is located.  My goal was to get a better color and reduce the surface area.

I came up with this hard plastic food tray that was a perfect fit.

At first I wanted to get one that had even shorter walls on the sides, but I settled on this 4 inch model, which was closer to the height of her normal box.  Long story short she took to it, with only the 2 “transgressions” mentioned above. We actually think she did that, because we replaced her normal rug, that is adjacent to her box, around the same time as we did the box.  We think that was a sign that she didn’t like the rug, not the box.

The benefits are several of the new box.  First, it looks a lot better, and is less noticeable.  Second, it has a slightly smaller surface area, so it takes less litter to fill. (cash in my pocket)  Finally, it’s just easier to clean up and carry to the trash, and it resists staining on the bottom of the pan.  Win, win, win.  Sometimes you can combine money saving ideas that also improve your life in a practical way.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever saved money on?