So Much Space!

Our house is almost twice the size of any other space that I've ever lived in.  Which is almost twice the amount of space that I've had to clean and pay attention to, which, in the short-term, has caused some problems.

TMI alert... just FYI.

My cat is bulimic.  He will eat, eat, eat.  And then walk/run/turn around somewhere and throw up wet, undigested cat food.  It's kind of gross.  Especially when you don't know that he did it in the middle of the night on the floor of our bedroom, and get a between-the-toes surprise first thing in the morning.  It's never really been a problem before, rather just an annoyance.  We always kept carpet spot cleaner on hand and would just do a little scoop and spray when we found something.  We were actually pretty happy about the non-carpeted floors in our new place for this reason.  However, what we didn't take into account was that he would do it in places that it would take days (if not longer) for us to stumble across now that we have so much extra room.

This weekend I realized just how big of a problem this was going to be.

Our laundry/utility room is the one space in the house that hadn't really been organized yet.  I knew that we needed to label totes, and we just hadn't gotten around to it yet.  Stuff was still in stacks along the wall.  But, as it was seasonal stuff, I didn't think it was that big of a deal.  Until this weekend, when I went in to grab something and found a pile of wet-regurgitated-cat-food-stuff  behind one of the totes... covered in ants.

I HATE ants.  They are so hard to get rid of.  I have childhood memories of them crawling on me in my house while lying on the living room floor watching TV... I just hate them.  So I was more than a little upset when I found them feasting on what my cat couldn't keep down.  I yelled for Jacob.  We cleaned, sprayed and let the room air out for a bit.  And then I told him that we NEEDED to organize that room to, hopefully, avoid future problems and make me feel better about the space.  So, we did.

Here is our laundry/utility room looking all spic and span and fantastic. =)

It never really occurred to me before that a dryer couldn't be pushed flush against the baseboard like the washer can (due to the dryer hose)... so our machines are a little off... which bothers me (the little bit of OCD in me is kicking in).  I think I need to pull the washer away from the wall so that they match better... lol

All of this stuff used to fit our little 4'X6' (if that) storage closet on the deck of the balcony at our last apartment... it's a lot happier (as are we) with all this extra space to spread out!

We did buy this bike rack pretty shortly after we moved in.  We honestly don't think it saves us much room... but it sure looks kinda cool. =)