There just is no good place on the main floor for a little box where vile things happen and from which odors emanate. No matter how cute the user is, this kind of thing belongs in the basement, in my view. We have one now, so I just can't see the catbox anywhere else.
The drama started right away with our crazy cat, and quickly abated with my 'stair shelf.' I thought it was a good plan to slowly move her down the stairs step by step, but it was taking so long and may never have been successful with this cat. Meanwhile, our stairs were narrowed to fit the box there. Bearable, but an imperfect solution. Here is how it looked then, and since moved down 4 stairs, and abruptly back to this point recently:
And now here is how it is - off the stairs! The top shelf is down several inches from maximum to line up with the stairs, so 1 of the 5 shelves went unused. That is the cardboard from the box the shelves came in between the shelves and the stairs. Kind of an afterthought, but should help keep any dust off the things we store underneath.
These are the same shelf kits in another part of the basement. We got these two a couple of months ago, shortly after we moved in. One tall and one set up as my workbench (and it has really come in handy!). As you can see, they're all full up, thus the need for another anyway. That's the old step shelf in the corner.
So hopefully this saga has ended and my pet posts will be all about cute and fuzzy things instead of the crap issues. Keep your fingers crossed!