The top two stairs are made of styrofoam. I covered the styrofoam with fleece. The bottom step is actually a regular sized grid on the top and four small grids for the sides. If you want to see the actual size of the smaller grids, look at the picture of the full cage. The "hay cube" grids are the ones we used.
No Carissa, they are not really hard to clean, but you do have to take the time to "spot clean" or you will have a mess. Because the litter and hay are on the other side of the cage, it's easier to clean.
