People who are sensitive should stop now and back out because this will be graphic.

It could depend on what is causing the smell rather than the type of litter. I have one that does her business and does not attempt to cover it. If you cat is that type no litter will help.

I like Worlds Best for my oldest cat but the others will not use it. Forms easily to remove clumps.

For the rest I use whatever is on sale that does not have a scent.

Bowel odor can be normal but urine odor especially fresh urine odor can indicate a urinary problem. My oldest according to my vet has a very small bladder and used to be prone to infections. When I smell and odor either from the litter box or sometimes from her fur it is time for a recheck. Scooping more frequently will help but since those crystals absorb liquid if the cat's paws are damp even from cleaning themselves they can stick to the paws. Cats do not like things stuck to their paws and some will wait until the last minute of discomfort to use the litter box. Retained urine can smell.

Clay litter is my only recommendation...and it doesn't kill the odor. We just scoop often.

I scoop daily, keep the litter very clean, and use Arm & Hammer clumping litter with no fragrance (I can't stand artificial cover up chemical fragances.) And my cat, Maisie, almost always covers up her deposits.

The only thing I can offer is I used Fresh Step litter for our cat but it was scented. We had a litter cabinet in the laundry room for years, and I never noticed a scent from the litter or cat when I walked in the room. I see Fresh Step also has “Fresh Step Simply Unscented“ you might try.

I have a much bigger house and there still isn't a good place to put the litter box. My suggestion for you would to be to move it some place else. My daughter and I pet sit a house a couple of months ago. The litter box was in a piece of furniture out in the open up at the top of the stairs. You didn't know it was there unless you knew. I just googled and there is specially made furniture out there. You could place it on top of an outdoor rug or something to catch the litter that the cat tracks out.

This photo shows the same litter cabinet we had in the laundry room.

There is certainly no other place to put the litter box. The rest of the house is open kitchen, dining, living room area, and then bedroom, bath--certainly don't want it in the bathroom off my bedroom even if there was room, which there isn't. Where it is is the farthest from general living area. Computer room has a lovely window seat and opens onto screened porch and is really the only place for it.

I guess there just isn't any really, really good odor absorber.

We have 3 litter boxes for out 2 cats and they don't really smell at all. (I can tell because an acquaintance stopped by and didn't realize we had cats until she saw the cat condo.) We do scoop frequently though. We use arm & hammer clumping. They might get a bit fragrant right after use, but that doesn't last long. Where we sometimes have a problem is Misty thinks she's in the box but her backside is hanging over the edge so it ends up on the floor. I have fixed this issue with boxes with higher sides and it seems to have helped.

If they do get urine on the floor, the best cleaner is Nature's Miracle Urine Destroyer for Cats...the other one is good, but the one especially for cats is the best by far for cat issues.

I saw one show where they converted a small old dresser into a kitty litter container....cut a door in the side of the dresser for the cat, eliminated the drawers and attached the drawer fronts to the dresser for show, and hinged the top to flip up so it could open from the top for cleaning.

You might also look into putting a pet door in the closet door and that way you can leave it shut and the cat can come and go. (No pun intended.)

Annie, I actually had thought of that, but money is too tight right now to have that done.

“There is certainly no other place to put the litter box.”

Totally understand. I do think some brands are better with odor absorption. You just need to try some and see. In your particular case very frequent scooping is key, but you already know that.

We had a neighbor who kept her two litter boxes under her kitchen table.🥴 Sometimes you just have to wonder.

I've used Arm and Hammer litter deodorizer which you just shake into the litter box when you clean it. This isn't kitty litter but rather deodorizer and it's unscented.

It is important to replace plastic litter boxes perhaps yearly. The plastic retains the odor. I use tidy Cats unscented and scoop several times a day. The litter box is is a back utility room and there is no detectable odor in the house.

Would your budget allow for a small air purifier? I have some larger ones I use for removing forest fire smoke when it's gotten bad here. I seldom run them otherwise, but have put one in the guest room sometimes to freshen the air before guests and they are amazingly effective. I can't recommend any of the small ones, but some research could turn up the best one. Be sure they are non-ionizing. Maybe look at some allergy info websites - the organizations ones that provide info about allergies and not the dot com ones trying to sell you something.
Costco has several small ones (some have the CA hazardous substance warning, but some do not), so you could try one and take it back if it doesn't please you. Their return policy is so generous.
eta: I just had to take a look, lol. Wirecutter recommends this for under $100 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VVK39F7/?tag=thewire06-20&linkCode=xm2&ascsubtag=AwEAAAAAAAAAAgsh

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-air-purifier/

Like Elizabeth said, plastic retains the odor. Plastic is porous and no matter how you try to clean them, there will always be residual odor.

I have two cats and two steel litter boxes. I got them o Amazon. They clean up beautifully and don't have any odor. Steel isn't porous so the odor isn't absorbed.

From Amazon:

Wow, no idea there was such a thing! I'll look into it. That might be the key.

Lacey, for our Mazie kitty (different spelling than yours!), we use World's Best Cat Litter & I don't notice any odor. But I am going to look into those steel litter boxes!

I love the steel litter boxes. I couldn't get rid of litterbox odor no matter what I tried. Steel wool with Comet cleanser, dishwashing detergent, etc. It would smell okay after I'd clean them, but once the cats started using them, it was like the odor was reactivated. The steel is also much easier to clean. No hard scrubbing needed.

Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract litter helped a lot when my elderly cat's litter became extra smelly. You can get it on Chewy and other places. The problem is that it gets like wet cement so can be hard to scoop. I solved this by mixing in some of her regular litter. Also, I've found the best way to contain odor in a small space is to get a small table (I used a card table.), put the box under it, and then use a floor length tablecloth. You could maybe make it your printer table. Your cat will probably appreciate the privacy while having a lot more room than in a covered litterbox and the tablecloth will contain a lot of the odor.

with our cat, he has since passed, we used fresh step, A & H, scoop-away, really whatever was on sale at Costco or BJ's. but it had to be clumping litter. we had no odor but it was downstairs and we scooped everyday.

try sprinkling baking soda on bottom of pan to absorb odors and continue scooping daily. we also would use OdoBan Gel.

I have not tried the pretty litter stuff, but it's a different technology for dealing with pee. You can always give that a try.

DH and I cut our own pet door in our old house. They are pretty easy to install. Maybe you can impose on a friend? That's what friends are for! :)

Thanks so much for all the suggestions. I ordered a stainless steel litter box, it arrived about an hour ago and I can already tell (smell) a difference!

I like the idea of stainless steel. Too bad they don't offer covered boxes.