We stand for an animal-loving community.
Each winter, Friends For Life builds and distributes #ProjectWARM shelters made out of specially modified plastic tubs and lined with foam and hay for insulation. They are durable and reusable year after year, designed to keep free-roaming cats safe and warm through the winter.
We stock up on these at the shelter when it starts getting colder, but you can also make your own #ProjectWARM box pretty easily.
Written Instructions: #ProjectWARM Community Cat House Construction
Questions we’ve been asked before…
Why use foam instead of blankets on the inside of the bin?
You can use blankets, but foam is a better insulator and seems to hold up better after getting wet (and it dries out quicker than a blanket would). If you’ve got some old blankets and want to use those instead, go for it! Just change them out whenever they start getting gross.
Straw is a better insulator than hay. Why don’t you use straw?
Straw isn’t grown in our region, so it’s cost prohibitive for us to use it in the boxes we make at the shelter.
If you’re just making a few, you could definitely buy straw to use as the bedding!
Why not use staples to attach the foam to the inside of the bin instead of spray glue?
We tried it! Unfortunately, we considered the potential for injury to the cats if the staples were to come loose or poke out the outside of the box to be too great.
Can you use any different insulators in these community cat houses?
We tried it! Unfortunately, we considered the potential for injury to the cats if the staples were to come loose or poke out the outside of the box to be too great.
- Absolutely! Here are just a few things that you could use instead of mattress pad foam:
- Have some sort of grocery/meal delivery service that delivers your food insulated? That works great!
- If you get stuff shipped to you in foam coolers, you can just cut a door in those – they are great insulators, since… that’s what they’re made to do. 😊
- Blankets can be used in a pinch but don’t work as well as mattress pad foam.
Have you seen that blue jean insulation stuff? This stuff is AMAZING insulation!
Is there anyway that you can make the tubs “prettier?”
We try and keep the cost as low as we can on these, and sometimes the supplies can be hard to find (read: trips to 7 different WalMarts). We take what we can get as far as tub colors go, and try to keep the cost to make each box as low as possible.
If you’re looking for a different option than the tub, there are a lot of insulated dog/cat houses out there on the internet for sale (though they tend to be pretty pricey).
Wanna get creative with your #ProjectWARM house? Go for it! Set it on your porch (if that’s where your community cats visit), cover it in a burlap fabric, and put some décor on top of it (though make sure it’s not something too heavy, like a plant, or something that’s going to scare the cats away from using it). Instantly Pinterest-worthy!