The Phantom Cat

Until a couple of days ago, I was convinced that the previous tenants of our apartment had owned a cat. A fluffy white long haired one, probably. Every time I vacuumed the floor, there would be what looked like white cat hairs stuck in the vacuum bristles. I told Logan my cat theory, and of my surprise that I could still be finding and cleaning up so much of this animal’s fur that was left behind. He responded with his own theory, that it is not the evidence of a phantom cat, but it is actually our new rug shedding. Unfortunately, he is right…

Our new-place purchase for this apartment is this awesome rug from CB2 – it’s a medium gray color with a wide stripe down the middle of off white spots in an abstract grid pattern. I love it. The 5’7’ size fits perfectly in the angle of our two couches and it defines the “living room” in the living room/eat-in-kitchen combo that we made the middle room of our place. I don’t regret the purchase because it’s a killer rug, but oh the vacuuming!!!

This living area, which consists of the rug, a play table, our couches, and our two side tables, is where the kids and I spend the majority of our time in our apartment. As a result, we kick up a considerable amount of fuzz from the rug – it seriously looks like hairballs! By the end of the day there is a thick layer of fuzz clumps littering the exposed carpet area, and sneaky clumps that have found their way into every other corner of the house. Especially under the kitchen table. Anything dropped on the floor is immediately covered in this “hair”.

And so, I have resigned myself to vacuuming once a day. This really is not as much of a chore as you may think, because the surface area that I need to cover is not large. I usually get it done while Logan is washing the boys up in the tub, and it takes all of 7 minutes – including the time spent pulling the vacuums out of their hiding spots in my closet, and then stuffing them back in between the extra paper towels and the laundry soap. The carpet issue is actually a great excuse to keep me on the ball with cleaning, and in a space this size it really only feels relaxing to me if it is not cluttered or even remotely dirty. It is also probably helpful that I have plenty of hormonal nesting energy motivating me!