Good sitter instructions are not long — they are findable. Your sitter is standing in your kitchen, cat weaving around their ankles, trying to remember whether the morning feed is the wet food or the dry, and whether the shy one is allowed out of the bedroom. Instructions that answer questions in the order a day actually unfolds, in plain words, with everything's location named, will be followed. A dense, loving essay about your cat's personality will be skimmed once and quietly abandoned by day two.
Start with the day itself, not the cat
Open with a simple timeline of a normal day: when you feed morning and evening, when you refresh water, when the litter tray gets scooped, when you play, and when lights and doors are set for the night. Under the timeline, give each job its own short section. Food needs amounts a stranger can reproduce — the tin, pouch, or measured scoop you actually use, where it is stored, and which bowl belongs to which cat in a multi-cat home. Litter needs the tray locations, where bags and litter live, and where waste goes. Write for someone conscientious but unfamiliar, because that is who a sitter is.
Describe normal, so abnormal stands out
The most valuable thing you can leave a sitter is a clear picture of ordinary: she eats about this much, he hides from visitors but emerges by evening, she always yells before breakfast, he never misses a meal. Against that baseline, your instructions can name the changes that matter — a cat who has not eaten for a day, one who is straining in the tray, hiding somewhere entirely new, or suddenly drinking far more than usual — and say exactly what to do about each: call you first for small worries, and go straight to the named veterinarian for the serious ones, with your consent to act already written down.
Cover the house, the hiding places, and the rules
List the unglamorous specifics sitters actually get stuck on: where the carrier lives in case of an emergency trip, which rooms are closed, which plants or windows matter, how the tricky back door locks, and where your cat hides during thunderstorms or fireworks — a sitter who cannot find a cat will assume the worst, and knowing the gap behind the boiler ends that panic. Include your contact details, a backup person nearby with a key, the vet's name, address, and phone number, and any neighbour who can help in a genuine emergency. Note anything a well-meaning visitor might do wrong, like letting an indoor cat slip onto the doorstep.
Hand it over like a person, not a document
Walk the sitter through the routine in your home before the trip — feeding, scooping, and finding the hiding spots — because one live run-through fixes ambiguities no document survives. Leave the written version where the day starts, by the food, rather than buried in email, and invite questions during the trip instead of demanding silence: a sitter who can ask about a half-eaten breakfast will catch problems a day earlier than one who feels they should not bother you. Keep the document updated between trips, since a stale routine followed faithfully is its own kind of failure.
Give the sitter access, not a pile of paper
Paper instructions separate from the cat's actual profile are how details drift — the vet's number changes, the routine shifts, the note on the fridge does not. A single, current version the sitter can open when they need it serves both of you better. KinsLe's Care Pass gives your chosen sitter temporary, clear access to your cat's care routine and key details for the trip, so the instructions they follow are the latest ones, in one place, for exactly as long as they are caring for her.