#HTE

Better Living Through Plastic Homewares: The Luuup Litterbox

House cats generally make less mess than their canine counterparts, but we also tend to keep boxes of their stinkiest work inside the home. The unfortunate upshot is the deferred version of dog walking: we have to scoop it eventually, and it can add up. The options for kitty poopin’ places are innumerable, but they rarely shy away from requiring the classic litter scoop without getting into weird or expensive SkyMall territory. The Luuup is an interesting exception.

The Luuup system is based on three slotted plastic trays used simultaneously. The top tray is filled with your sand or litter, and once ready to be emptied you just pick it up and shake to let the clean material filter through to fill the tray below. This leaves your cat-leavings exposed and easy to transport to the trash in one go. Once emptied, the waste-free tray is stacked below the other two (rotated 180 degrees from the bottom-most tray), and the process is repeated with new litter added as needed. 

The beauty of the design is in the trays’ identical but directional shape, which allows both easy filtering and spill-security without complicated or tricky to clean parts. Other filtering trays do exist, but with smaller (cloggier) holes or multi-part systems that incur more work or waste more litter.

Like a grill pan, but gross

The Kickstarter photos lack any close-ups showing how secure the system really is (scoop or no, am I still going to get grit all over my floor?), but the 3-tiered concept is simple and they’ve incorporated a couple idiot-proofing measures. The shape is deep enough to account for some of the scatter made by gymnast kitties who like to fling themselves in and out of the toilet. They’ve also designed a snap-on spill guard for the guys who really dig enthusiastically. The handles are formed off-center to help you grab only the layer you want without getting fingernails involved, and I’m betting that the slot bottoms avoid the suction-stick you get with stacking containers. My favorite feature is the "Nope, other way, dummy” tab that keeps you from replacing the tray in the wrong direction and thus spilling litter on your floor on the next round. 

Nope. Try again.

One of the stretch goals they hit includes production using better antimicrobial materials, which is an obvious plus. With some adventurous colorways it would blend in nicely in a modern home. 

Maybe it’s my own hatred for the inefficiency of poop-scoops, or maybe I just miss infomercials, but I even found the video’s weird hard pitch (this is the world’s best litter box!!!) endearing. The Luuup’s Kickstarter only runs for another week, but based on its 900% successful funding and made-for-TV backstory, you’ll probably have no problem finding a Luuup in the future.