Baskets and Boxes

5 Comments

Posted by Rebecca, June 22nd, 2011

Thank you all for your kind words and support for Darwin. I’ve never met a cat person that I didn’t like, they just seem to be the most caring and genuine people around. You guys are no exception 🙂

Darwin wasn’t quite acting like himself on Monday night, so we were a little concerned. He’s been inhaling his special food like a champ and drinking tons of water. Thankfully, yesterday it was all back to fun and games and I took the opportunity to relax with him.

We watched some HGTV together…

Then I took out some new toys for him from the secret stash…


Which reminds me, part of my about me section mentions making this place comfy for us and the cats. You know, like form and function or something designerly. Well, the cats have a “toy box” where all of their little belongings are kept. It’s actually the smaller of our 2 Target baskets that live in our entertainment center.

(we will hide that tv cord one of these days…and this happens to be an old picture, I have taken the tag off of that Ikea vase)

They love this little supply and can easily access it. It is really adorable to see them dig in there and always grab their personal favorite. It’s equally adorable when we wake up in the morning and toys are suddenly scattered all over the floor. If only I could train them to put them back as well….

The big basket actually has cat toys in it too. I usually keep new toys in there and only give them a few at a time because chances are, they’ll end up under the couch in a few hours. Plus it helps to make Santa’s toy supply last all year. Last night I took some toys out of a brown themed Christmas stocking, which is why Darwin’s supply is so very well coordinated 🙂 Someday we’ll probably reserve this side for human kids’ toys, since I know trying to conceal that clutter will take years of scheming. And perhaps some engineers, inventors and scientists…

Also falling into the “family room storage basket from Target” category is another little adaptation we’ve made recently regarding the basket we used to store our wood in the winter.


It is now a flip flop basket for the summer, that was moved to the entrance of the room. Mike and I realized we were dumping our shoes by the laundry room door, so to minimize that clutter I moved this currently unused basket over closer to chuck shoes in. It’s weird that I never take my shoes off in the house, but I always have to kick them off before walking on the carpet.

Apparently, Macky thinks this should be a toy box too.

We love having loads of storage in our family room since it’s our most frequently used space. Most of the time all 5 of us are in there. Once we get a new sectional and some end tables that are actually end tables, we may be able to fit even more storage. Can you ever have enough in a room?

That’s our kitten design trick for the day. We’re going to have to come up with a lot more of those since we have to add a litter box to our second floor for Darwin. I’ve been dreading having to do that, but his health comes first. Our first step to keep my sanity is possibly switching litter brands. We currently use Feline Pine and it tracks a lot, which is fine for the laundry room but not for upstairs. Does anyone use any other all natural cat litter? We’re considering Yesterday’s News, does anyone have any experience with it?

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5 Responses to “Baskets and Boxes”

  1. Jen says:

    I have a “toy box”, too for my cats 🙂 They use it the same way yours do, too. They both have their favorites, and even drag a couple into bed at night. It’s rather funny when I tell them we’re going to bed, they run off to get their toys to bring to bed.

    Still sending lots of positive thoughts to you and Darwin.
    Jen recently posted..Dreams

  2. We also have a cat toy box, but I have to keep it out of reach. Our dog likes to grab the cat toys and munch on them, even though she has plenty of large toys for herself! She’s a little thief. I put a few out during the day and pick them up at night though because our cat will bring them into the bedroom with us and since most of his toys make a rattling noise (they’re his favorites) it’ll drive us nuts while we try to sleep. Haha.

    I like the basket of shoes idea. We have ours in a big pile by the side door where we come in. No one usually sees that area, but it’s an eyesore to me!

    We tried using natural kitty litter and our cat completely rejected it! He got so mad he poo’d on our couch. I’d like to try again because the litter is so messy.

    • mike says:

      Did you slowly try to introduce natural cat litter? If not, you might have more success by starting slowly — 1/4 new litter, 3/4 old litter for one week. 1/2 new ltter, 1/2 litter for the next week. 3/4 new letter, 1/4 old litter for the 3rd week.

  3. Elz says:

    We used Yesterday’s News when our late cat was ill as well. It’s very good. It doesn’t track at all hardly and it decomposes like pine litter with urine. I will warn you that it doesn’t cover up poo smells as good as Feline Pine. Some cats have issues switching from Pine to Newspaper as well, it feels weird on their feet. Good luck with your Darwin 🙁

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