How To Keep A Cat From Going Under The Bed...

Twice a year, a ritual occurs in the Taylor household...the changing of the clothes. In our basement we have several plastic containers full of clothes. In the winter the containers are full of summer clothes and in the summer the long-sleeve shirts, sweats, and sweaters are stored.

Because we have three sons, we take the term "hand-me down" very seriously. Luckily my boys are not so concerned with wearing the most up-to-date fashions. In fact, today I sent a picture that I took of my youngest son to my oldest son who is currently serving an LDS mission. He said he remembered wearing that same shirt. I didn't even remember that we had that shirt ten years ago (to me, it still looks in great shape...). Yes, we save stuff. The only downside is all those clothes take up a lot of storage space in the basement.

We usually wait until we're pretty sure the weather's turned for good before we go through the all day process (and sometimes it takes all day...) of swapping the clothes. Today was the day to make the change. Last year we bought some of those space bags and they've been great. This year my son had a fantastic idea.

Let's put some of the clothes under our bed so the cat can't go under the bed to avoid being put in her room. If we don't put Gracie in her room at night, the other cat will come in and they'll start fighting. The last sound you want to hear in the middle of the night is two cats fighting inside your house.

So, we swapped the clothes, freed up some storage space and denied our cat a hiding space--that's a pretty good day!