Experimentation

: Motivated and productive

Since I was cleaning the cat boxes, sweeping, and mopping, I decided to expand my activities to cleaning the toilet and wiping down the cabinets, etc. Then I decided on an experiment. I had originally put an uncovered cat box in the bathroom closet with the door open a bit so they could go in. They've used that well. So I've moved that one to the back and put the one that is covered up front. It wouldn't have fit under the shelf, but they have roughly the same room in each to do their business. Their food is up above on one of the shelves. I then put the mat that keeps them from tracking so much on the outside of the door. This gives them privacy, keeps the cat box from being right out in the open for when visitors come, contains the litter a little better, and generally seems to work well. Since I clean the boxes every day, it doesn't really build up much in the way of smell in such an enclosed space, either.

Two observations about the house...my closets have higher ceilings than the rest of the apartment, which is nice from a storage angle. I currently have my Japanese doll case, for example, in the top of the hall closet. It's very fragile and needs to be reconstituted after Darius sent it cascading down one day at the old apartment, breaking one of the panes. I'd like to get a pane of glass cut and get it back together soon. In the meantime, the closet will protect it.

My ceilings are at different heights. The hall is the shortest, which isn't a problem for me, being 5'4" under a 7-foot ceiling, but Dwana's husband Eric, who was so vital during the move, is 6'7" and had to dodge the light fixture each time he went down the hall.

I'm going to have to put in a work request for my bathroom sink. I didn't realise until tonight that it doesn't seal when you try to stop it, and the stopper should be attached to the mechanism but apparently a plastic bit has broken off. Fortunately, it's not anything vital, and the maintenance guys are quite on the ball here. That's one of the special benefits of living in a complex, of course.

One last experiment...when I moved here, I bought two AirWick scented oil air fresheners that plug into the wall, mainly because the workmen had smoked in the apartment prior to the move in and everyone else could smell it. It's lavender and chamomile, which I chose because it should be relaxing. It is, but it reminds me of a men's cologne, although I'm not sure which one, rather than either of the herbs. The great thing about these fresheners, however, is that the part that you can refill is actually glass rather than plastic. So after these were empty, I took them out, took off the plastic stopper with the wick, rinsed them well, and took the tops from the new ones and put them on these. I'll run them through the dishwasher just to be safe, but my point is that everything but the actual wick assembly can be reused and the resulting bottles look like perfume bottles and could be used to store essential oils, perfumes, etc. The black lettering that identifies the scent of the product rubs right off, so you're left with a decorative, rather nice container. I wouldn't necessarily go putting edible stuff in them, since I haven't been able to determine what goes into them to begin with, and you can't actually reuse them in the electric burner. But they're probably a sight easier to reuse or recycle along with other glass containers than many other similar fresheners. I figure it's worth a try, anyway.

Well, that's enough for tonight. I'm going to take Cerys out and then go on to bed. 'Night.