Take the box exactly as it is, used litter included, and set it up in one closed room before the cat comes out of the carrier. Do not scrub it, do not buy a new one, and do not change brands this month.
A cat finds its toilet by smell before it finds it by memory. In a house where nothing smells right, a box that does is worth more than a clean one. Cornell Feline Health Center makes the wider point about change: if you must switch litter, do it gradually, adding small amounts of the new to the old. Moving week is not the week.
Worth ten minutes before the van arrives. A litter that comes from one online shop or a subscription is fine until you move somewhere the delivery takes a week. Here is how each of the litters we have tested is normally sold. Check your own new address before you rely on it.
| Litter | Where it comes from | Bag | Our score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract | Pet shops and online | 40 lbs | 9.5 |
| Dr. Elsey's Ultra | Pet shops and online | 40 lbs | 9.4 |
| Sustainably Yours | Pet shops and online | 26 lbs | 9.3 |
| Boxiecat Premium | Pet shops and online | 40 lbs | 9.2 |
| World's Best Cat Litter | Pet shops and online | 28 lbs | 9.1 |
| Naturally Fresh Walnut | Pet shops and online | 26 lbs | 8.8 |
| PrettyLitter | Subscription or online | 6 lbs | 8.8 |
| Catalyst Soft Wood | Pet shops and online | 18 lbs | 8.7 |
Roll the top down, tape it, and stand it upright in a crate in the car. An open bag lying flat in a van tips at the first roundabout and you spend moving day hoovering clay out of a carpet you no longer own.
Litter is heavy, cheap and sold everywhere. Moving 150 lbs of it costs more in van space than buying it again. A local shelter or a neighbour with a cat will take unopened bags the same day.
Used litter you scoop on the way out goes in a sealed bag in the general waste, not down the toilet of a house you are handing over. Why flushing is the wrong call is a separate story, and it matters more than people think.
Yes. Keep the box as it is, dirty litter and all, for the first day or two in the new place. It is the one thing in an unfamiliar house that already smells like the cat, and it tells the cat where the toilet is without you having to teach it.
No. A move is already a big change. Cornell advises switching brands gradually, adding small amounts of new litter to the old, and moving week is the week you cannot do that carefully. Wait a month.
In the safe room first, then in the permanent spot once the cat is roaming. Quiet, hard floor, a clear view of the door, and nowhere near a washing machine. Get the safe room right and the permanent spot is an easy second move.
Shrink the world again. Put the cat back in one room with the box for a few days, keep the old litter, and rule out a vet problem if it does not settle. Most post-move accidents are about space and noise, not about the litter.
Then, and only then, put the boxes where you actually want them. Add the spare box at the same time. A new house is bigger or laid out differently, and the count that worked in the old place may not cover a second floor here.
Activated carbon that goes into the litter you already use, so smell gets its own fix instead of a different bag. In our own use it made the biggest difference to litter-box smell of anything we have tried.
Read our Purrify guide to picking a litter for odor control.
Where each litter is sold and the scores in the table come from our own catalog of tested products. The advice against switching brands mid-move is sourced to Cornell, linked above.