What You Can't See ...

We are nine days post-reno and the reality of our new world is seeping in.

The daily vacuuming that took place during the renovation process, to deal with the drywall and saw dust, had a hidden advantage. The state of perpetual vacuuming took care of the daily accumulation of cat hair.

Behold, the hidden advantage (also known as a disadvantage to most people) of wall to wall carpeting, which acts like a cat hair magnet and keeps cat hair at bay.

Yes, the cat hair becomes intertwined among the fibres of the carpet. Yes, the carpet absorbs unknown quantities of dust, debris and a variety of miscellaneous day-to-day living. No, you can't clean a carpet the way you can clean any other kind of flooring.

But ...

Give that carpeting a good old fashioned vacuuming, delight in the fresh tracks of the vacuum cleaner as proof of your hard work and carpeting (in my small, little world) is a delight.

Fast forward to our present day world of wall to wall laminate.

There is no more, nor less cat hair than ever before. But without the static cling quality of carpeting to keep the cat hair stuck to the floor, hair is EVERYWHERE.

Sweeping is a joke. All that does is rile up the hair and stir up that which was once quietly resting on the floor and gives it wings.

Dry mopping with my new handy dandy microfibre mop is no better. I find myself chasing the elusive cat hair and trying to capture it with the mop by lifting it up, then plopping it back down upon the cat hair that got away. Thus, riling up the hair within the mop fibres and the excess hair around the plopping mop.

Even when trying to take a short cut by dry mopping instead of vacuuming, I must drag out the vacuum cleaner to vacuum the mop at several intervals along the way. This is a feat which feels pointless, as there is very little evident hair captured within the fibres of the mop. Thus I know I have left at least half the cat hair behind. Or sent it airborne ...

The airborne hair becomes attached to the sides of the cupboards, atop the white table I set up in the kitchen a few days ago and lo and behold - I even found a lone cat hair inside a cupboard (which is now cat-proof, so I know no cat has set a paw inside).

I wiped the cat hair off the white table in the kitchen every five minutes while awaiting company yesterday afternoon. No cat jumped atop the table in between swiping intervals. Yet the black hair wafted back down upon my previously cleaned surface. Time and time (and time) again.

Vacuuming is really the only answer. Vacuuming every day keeps the cat hair at bay. Is this what my life has now become?

Don't get me wrong. I love the look of our new home. I know laminate was the right way to go. But honestly? Do I look like a person who loves vacuuming THAT much?

I miss our carpets. Yes, I know the cat hair was still there. But it was locked into the carpet fibres in a manner which kept most of the hair confined to the floor until I was ready to deal with it. I'm more of a once-a-week kind of vacuumer.

I am seriously considering inventing a vacuum cleaner which works along the line of a reverse furnace. This central vacuuming unit would run continously and suck up the debris in the reverse fashion of the furnace's output of heat. Great idea, right!?

Some people would weigh the pros and cons of being a pet owner. Not me. The cats are staying. I miss the carpeting. What I couldn't see didn't bother me.