How to Make a Homemade Cat Condo

As I’ve said in other cat-related articles, I have several indoor cats. I was reading an article about the well-being of cats one time. The article stated that “boredom…and a lack of challenge…” can be real problems for our furry cats. And, as cat owners, we have the responsibility to provide plenty of toys for our cat’s entertainment and health. (A Homemade Cat Condo, I found, can be great entertainment.) As I read the article, I thought of the overflowing box of store-bought toys my cats have. There are catnip-filled mice, motorized mice, plastic balls with bells tinkling inside, rubber balls that bounce, square pillows that have a catnip scent, round toys with feathers attached to them, balls with elastic strings attached, and many more toys! Just like having little kids in the house that need amusement, I used to buy my cats toys everytime I saw one I thought they would like. (Little did I realize they actually needed a homemade cat condo instead!) I also forgot that often, homemade things are the best. You can make a variety of things, including a cat condo, just by using cardboard.

It took me a while to figure it out, but I finally realized the truth. All the money I had spent for store-bought toys was in vain. My cats would much rather play with objects they find around the house over what’s in their own toy box.

Take for example, cardboard boxes. I received a package in the mail one day. By the time I had removed the contents of the box, my cat Minnie had already hopped inside and was mixing the tissue paper up with her paws. Presumably to make it comfortable, because she laid down and took a cat nap right afterwards. After that, some of the other cats hopped up to investigate the cardboard box, and a game of “Cat in the Box” started up.

This gave me the idea to make a homemade cat condo combination playhouse for my cats. I had some boxes leftover from when I had sold items on eBayâÂ?¢. And if those wouldn’t work, I knew I could take a drive to the local grocery and get more cardboard boxes there. You can make your own homemade cat condo just by following these simple instructions:

My initial design idea to make my homemade cat condo was to place four boxes in a “+” shape. But I quickly realized that that condo would take up a lot of space. So, I settled on a condo/playhouse that was built in floors. It turned out to be three floors high.

The first thing I did to make my homemade cat condo was to choose three cardboard boxes that went from bigger to smaller. That is, the base box for the condo was approximately twenty-four inches square, the next one was about eighteen inches square, and the smallest box was somewhere around fifteen inches square. The sizes of the boxes you’ll need, of course, depends on the size(s) of your cat(s). None of my felines are skinny creatures, so they needed plenty of space in my homemade cat condo for them to crawl through it and play in.

The next step I took was to choose a bowl- a new cat food bowl worked well!- that measures about eight inches in diameter. I stacked the cardboard boxes up and decided where I needed to put exit holes. I decided to put one hole on each side of the largest base box, plus one hole in its top. In the second box, I needed an exit hole to come up from the base, plus another hole to reach the third floor. And the third, or smallest cardboard box, just needed an exit hole in it. I used the cat food bowl as a guide for marking out the holes in my homemade cat condo.

I carefully used a utility knife to cut the holes out of the cardboard boxes.

The final step in the construction of my homemade cat condo was to place the boxes on top of each other and secure them into place. I positioned the second box on the base, then drew pencil lines around its perimeter. I did the same with the smallest third box. I then removed the boxes. The lines showed me where the boxes met and where I needed to place the hot glue at.

Once I hot glued the cardboard boxes into place, my homemade cat condo was basically finished. If I wanted to make it decorative, I could paint the outside walls or place stickers on them. I knew my cats wouldn’t care one way or the other. Decorations are strictly a “human choice”.

Since cats are inquisitive and playful by nature- and mine are no exception- all I had to do was set my homemade cat condo into place and let the fun begin. My cats investigated, crawled into, up through, and all around their new playhouse.
I even threw some of their toys inside so they could play with them. When all their energy was spent, some of them even slept inside the bottom cardboard box.