I use liners, but I don't stick to only one brand.  I get whichever
jumbo liners the store I happen to be at happens to have.  I have found
that layers of newspaper stuck under the liner helps sop up any leaks
that may occur and makes it much easier to clean the box.  I use
regular litter, however, not the clumpable kind.  With four cats, the
clumping litter is just way too expensive.

dragon

I don't use them simply because I find they tear and then aren't any use and
just get in the way.  Using the scoop causes the tears as well as kitty
claws (all of my cats are enthusiastic diggers).  We can use the hose
outside year-round, so I just take them outside once a week with a scrub
brush and some "Mr. Clean" and give them a good scrubbing using a hose to
wash them off.  This is really convenient for me since we keep the litter
boxes in our attached garage, which has a kitty door in the door that leads
to the house.  When it's time to clean the boxes I just "lock" the kitty
door to keep the cats in the house, open up the garage door, and clean the
boxes out in the drive.

Hugs,

CatNipped

Jill,

I used to use the large, black garbage bags (I have very large
tupperware storage containers for litterboxes) and they fit over the
boxes just as you described.  Unfortunately, Lacey is a digger and she
would tear the bags so they became useless.  Now, when I change the
litter (on the weekend) I use one of the disposable Clorox wipes and
wipe out the box and let it dry before adding fresh litter.  This has
managed to keep the boxes fresh until I wash them (about once a month,
maybe a little longer).

Julie

You don't have a bathtub or shower?  It would never occur to me to use
the kitchen sink.

There are adaptors that replace aerators on faucets to allow
connecting a garden hose to the inside faucet.

While I do have a suitable utility sink, I still wash the sieve,
inside of the pan, and kick rings in the pan, then scrub off the
outside with of the pan with the still wet scrub brush.

We use wood pellet litter, which breaks up into wood dust, well, wet
wood dust, when peed on. Earlier we used to use a few layers of
newspaper on the bottom of the litter pan, but now we don't have
anything but the pellets. DH is the "assigned litter pan technician", so
he regularly changes the whole contents of the pan (usually when most of
the pellets have turned into dust and scooping wouldn't leave much to do
doo-doos in anymore) and washes the pan with a detergent containing
chorine under the shower tap - which makes the kitties a bit high - the
chorine, not the shower.

Now with the two kitties, however, we're considering getting a "sifting
litter pan" designed espesially for the wood pellet litter. It sifts
through the wood dust and leaves the intact pellets, making scooping and
cleaning heaps easier. Here's a link to the manufacturer's site:
http://www.peewee.se/  There is an English version of the site too -
click on the English flag - but the "How it works" -page doesn't seem to
work there. In the Swedish version the pic (not animated) is under "Så
fungerar det" and in the Finnish one under "Näin se toimii", where the
pic is even animated - emptying the litter through the bottom into the
second pan underneath.

I love them.  I thnk they are a major technological advance. ;)  
I couldn't live without them.  My favorite are the jumbo Jonny Cat
ones with the drawstring.

Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

"jmcquown" <jmcquown@bellsouth.net> had some very interesting things
to say about Cat Pan Liners - what's your take?:

Tried them, Felix digs too enthusiastically for them to be practical
[he shreds them].

I don't use liners anymore because the cat's claws ripped them.   I scoop
several times a day and change pans about every week (I use two).   I
rinse the pan with a clorox mixture then put that down the toilet.  I then
wash the pan in the shower (hand held shower).

When I had Ruffus some years ago, I used to just upend the cat tray into a
large heavy duty construction type garbage bag. That did the job nicely, and
sent it all otu with the trash.

Skimming and then trying to flush the lumps clogged my toilet drain. The $23
"Ridgid closet auger" freed up my toilet drain after that.

Do you use litter pan liners?  I prefer to use them and like the kind that
fit entirely over the pan (like a garbage bag).  Those that I can turn
inside out so the litter and 'deposits' fall inside and dump every week
(yes, I scoop and replenish litter daily).

But I know some people who prefer to go lining-less and after regular
scooping just wash the pan out every week.  I'm afraid I'm much too lazy a
cleaner to do that.

If you use pan liners, what is your preference?  If you don't, why would you
rather not?

I should probably mention I have only a single sink in the kitchen and
Persia's litter pan is bigger than the sink!  Even with the liners, in the
summer I take it outside and hose it off.  In the winter they block off the
external faucets with some sort of insulated cover.  So I find the liners to
be an absolute necessity.

Jill