Pick the room she has already chosen
Start from your senior cat's own map rather than imposing a new one. The room where she already spends most of the day, ideally on the ground floor and away from the household's busiest traffic, becomes her base. Moving an arthritic or partly sighted older cat to an unfamiliar room for the sake of tidiness costs her the confidence of known routes, so bring the supplies to her instead. Within that room, lay everything out so bed, litter tray, food, and water sit a few steps apart on one level, with no stairs, thresholds, or slippery crossings between them.
Lay out the circuit with a cat's priorities in mind
Place the bed in the warmest, draft-free corner, raised just enough to be cozy but low enough that she steps in rather than jumps. Put the litter tray at the opposite end of the arrangement from the food, because cats strongly prefer distance between eating and toileting even when the whole circuit is compact. Choose a tray with one low entry side so stiff hips do not have to step high, and size it generously so she can turn around without crouching uncomfortably. Food and water go side by side on a washable non-slip mat, with a second water bowl a few steps away, since senior cats drink more willingly when water is simply there rather than across the house.
Make every step between stations easy
The few steps in between matter as much as the stations themselves. Lay a runner or mat along her route if the floor is wood or tile, because slipping once can make a sore cat reluctant to make the trip to the tray at all. Keep the path permanently clear of shoes, bags, and charging cables, and add a soft night light nearby if she moves around after dark, since older eyes adjust slowly to darkness. If her bed has a favorite blanket, wash it on rotation with a spare so the station never disappears entirely on laundry day, which can unsettle a cat who navigates partly by scent and routine.
Keep the small world supplied without fuss
A compact layout only works if it is restocked before it runs short, because a senior cat who finds an empty water bowl or a dirty tray may not go looking elsewhere in the house. Check the tray at least twice a day, refresh water daily, and keep a small sealed supply of her food and litter in the same room so a top-up never becomes a project. Watch the stations for information as you service them: how much water is going down, whether meals are finished, and whether the tray shows smaller or more frequent visits all tell you how she is doing, and any sharp change is worth noting for her vet.
Share the routine so the layout survives busy days
The risk to a carefully arranged corner is not design but drift, when different family members move a bowl, skip a tray check, or refill water in a different spot. Agree the layout once, keep it fixed, and divide the small daily jobs explicitly so each one has an owner and a visible done state. That shared clarity matters most on workdays and weekends away when care passes between people. KinsLe makes that handover simple through Care Teams, where the tray, water, and feeding checks for her corner can be assigned to whoever is home and marked complete with a timestamp for everyone else to see.