Put Everything Where It Will Actually Be Used
A sitter cares best when supplies live at the point of use. Keep food, the correct scoop, and opened and spare supplies beside the feeding station rather than in a high cupboard across the kitchen. Put litter, bags, and the scoop by the tray, and a small cleaning kit, with cloths, spray you normally use, and bin bags, where accidents are likeliest, usually near the tray and feeding area. If you have several cats with different foods, label tubs with names and amounts, and portion anything complicated in advance so the sitter is following a system, not interpreting one.
Write One Routine in the Order the Day Runs
Replace scattered sticky notes with a single routine written as the day unfolds: morning feed and water, litter check, any play or medication timing, evening feed, and lights or heating as you leave them. Add the small facts that prevent phone calls, such as how much she usually eats, where she hides, which door must stay shut, and what normal looks like for her. Put vet details, your contact numbers, and a trusted neighbour's number at the top, and leave the note in one obvious place, such as on the fridge or beside the food.
Make the House Itself Easy to Run
Show the sitter, in person if you can, how your home's quirks work: the window latch that needs a lift, the cat flap setting you use, the heating control, and where the stopcock and fuse box are in case of a leak or trip. Test that the keys you leave actually open every lock the sitter needs, including any side gate. Clear clutter from around the tray and feeding station so cleaning is quick, and leave a torch where the sitter arrives after dark. Houses are full of knowledge owners no longer notice they have; the setup visit is where you hand it over.
Prepare for the Messy and the Unexpected
Assume one accident, one hairball, and one tipped water bowl, and make each a two-minute job: spare bedding for her favourite spot, kitchen roll in two rooms, and a plan for rubbish the sitter can follow. Leave a spare set of house keys with a neighbour and tell the sitter who holds them. If your cat takes any regular medication or has a health condition the sitter should watch, leave those instructions written separately and prominently, with the threshold for calling the vet stated plainly rather than left to judgement.
Do a Sitter's-Eye Test Before You Leave
Finally, walk through one full care round yourself using only what the sitter will have: the note, the supplies, the keys. Time it, notice anything you reached for that is not out, and fix the gaps. A home set up this way lets a sitter spend their visit on the cat rather than on cupboard archaeology. Recording the whole setup in KinsLe Care Pass means the sitter holds temporary, clear access to the routine, the house quirks, and the emergency contacts together, instead of piecing them together from notes and memory.