Things That Make Life Easier: Keeping cat stink at bay

Those who know me know that my two cats are my babies. They are my sweet, soft, furry, stanky ass babies. And since the two of them share a very small one bedroom apartment with the two of us, keeping their litter box from dominating the apartment is a top priority for me. Luckily for us, the two of them have never been picky about what kind of litter they'll use, so they've been super patient as I have switched litters at random, trying to find the one that works best for us. Luckily for them, I have finally found my kitty litter nirvana.

The first line of defense is of course our Litter Locker Plus. I picked ours up a couple of years ago on the recommendation of a friend and it's still going strong, so it's totally worth the initial cash outlay (plus I think it's cheaper at Petsmart, so try getting it there). The best way to describe it is a DiaperGenie for cat litter clumps. We clean their box once a day and instead of filling the trash can with baggies of poop, we toss it into the Litter Locker and voila, no festering poop smell. Plus, we only have to empty out the Litter Locker every 10 days or so.

As for the ruling cat litter, we've settled on World's Best Cat Litter as our final answer. I switched over to Swheat Scoop a couple years ago, because the dust from the clay litters was making all of us sneeze. And I'm all about the all natural biodegradeable stuff these days. But I never liked how big the clumps were (seriously, it looked like they were peeing quarts out every time since the clumps were huge) and man alive, that stuff tracked like mad. So we switched to WBCL a couple months ago, and I love it beyond reason. Still all natural (made from corn), absorbs better and clumps up harder than the Swheat Scoop, and best of all, it tracks less because the little nuggets are smaller and Riley can't carry them around the way he used to. in other words, it fucking rocks and I cannot recommend it enough.

So if you have cats but would prefer to not have cat stank, get a Litter Locker. And if you're looking for a good cat litter, try the World's Best. Both products are totally worth the little extra that you'll spend, because really...a stink free home is a priceless thing.

Thing That Makes Me Pretty: A Scrub To Rule Them All

(So okay, there are certain products that I love and adore and want to tell the world about. This of course means that I have decided to start a new category of short little blog posts about various Things I Love. And then you can buy them and try them and love them too!)

Everyone thinks that my skin is simple and easy to take care of since it doesn't tend to break out or misbehave in any obvious ways. But in reality, my skin has always and forever been picky and sensitive (and also combination!), and the only reason I haven't used all the fancy creams and scrubs out there is because I've been afraid that they will anger my persnickety skin. It's really been frustrating because I have always had these little teeny bumps on my chin that have only gone away when I've endulged in a professional facial. Plus, my skin's gotten duller and more unevenly colored as I gotten into my 30's.

So I decided to hit my local Walgreens and see if there were any exfoliating scrubs that wouldn't kill me with ingredients designed to dry me out or rough edged scrubby pieces. And I found Oil of Olay's Regenerist Daily Regenerating Cleanser. After a week of using it, I was in love. My skin looks and feels awesome, and the little bumps are gone! I think I've only gotten 2 or 3 tiny little zits since I started using it, and really, I'm the only one who noticed they were there.

It's got teeny little beads that don't make my face feel like it's getting scraped, and the cleanser itself is creamy rather than foamy, which means it doesn't dry my skin out as much. I only use it once a day since it does have salicylic acid in it and twice a day would probably be too much for me. But scrubbing in the morning seems to be enough to keep my face unshiny and soft all day. And the best part? It's only $7 or $8 since you can find it in just about every drugstore (and also Target and Wal-Mart).

So if you're looking for a good scrub, get yer butt out to your closest drugstore and pick up some of this stuff.