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A cat on top of the wardrobe is not misbehaving. It is using something the floor cannot give it.
1. A cat up high sees before it is seen
The first thing a high spot gives is an angle. From the top of a wardrobe, a cat can see the door, the hallway and half the room without moving. It knows who is coming before that person notices it.
That explains something you see often: a cat does not always pick the highest point, it picks the one that covers the entrance. Look at where yours settles, and which way it faces. The direction tells you more than the height.
2. Height adds floor area, not just comfort
People measure a home in floor space. A cat measures it in usable surfaces, and a bare wall counts for nothing. A clear shelf, the top of a sideboard, a deep sill: each one adds a piece of territory nobody competes for.
This is why a small flat is not automatically a poor one. A studio with four usable levels offers more than a large, completely flat living room.
3. Climbing is the way out for a cat that wants no trouble
When something unusual comes into the room, a visitor, a vacuum cleaner, a child running, a cat first tries to step aside. Going up costs it less than a fight, and less than wedging itself under furniture where it can no longer see anything.
A cat with a high spot available often comes back down by itself once the room is calm again. One without it takes cover at floor level, where a hand can reach it, and the tension lasts longer.
Do not take that high spot away because it bothers you on the day you have people round. That is exactly the day it earns its place.
4. A height it cannot lie down on is only a route
A narrow ledge is a path, not a place. For a cat to settle, it has to be able to lie on its side without part of it hanging over the edge.
You can test this without buying anything: lay your hand flat on the surface. If your hand fits comfortably, a medium-sized cat will fit curled up. If you would have to wedge something in to stop it sliding, the surface is too tight and it will not stay.
5. The route matters more than the summit
A high shelf with nothing below it is reachable in one leap, and only by a cat in good shape. Add a halfway step, a chair back, a crate, a low shelf, and the same shelf becomes usable by almost any cat.
Watch how it climbs today. If the route runs across your worktop or the table, the cat is not choosing badly: that is the only staircase on offer. Give it another one before you close that one off.
6. Coming down asks more than going up
A cat's claws curve backwards. They hold beautifully on the way up and not at all on the way down head first. So most cats reverse down, or jump.
A healthy adult handles that without thinking. A kitten, an older cat or a cat that has put on weight handles it less well, and a jump downwards takes more than the same jump upwards.
If yours gets stuck up there regularly, the route is too steep in one direction. Add a step for the way down rather than lifting it off every time.
7. Height does not replace the floor
Once you realise your cat likes high places, it is tempting to move everything upstairs: the bowl, the water, the bed. That is not what it is asking for.
A cat wants the choice, not the removal. Eating on a perch is awkward for many of them, and a raised bowl becomes a problem the day a joint hurts. Keep food, water and the litter tray reachable without climbing: height is for watching and for sleeping.