So I've had Zuko for 7 years, have lived in my house for 10, have had depression for 15, and have been an excruciatingly light sleeper my whole life. My bedroom is in constant depression nest mode, sometimes to an extreme level that would genuinely be unfit for a cat. So I never let him in my bedroom. Door is always closed. I'm only in there at night, and he easily adapted to not being in the room with me during that time.
Recently I deep cleaned the bedroom, organized everything, actually decorated it to my liking, started opening the shades on the windows, and proactively added a garbage bin, recycling bin, clothes bin, food bin, and dirty dish bin. It's been almost three weeks and that's actually working SUPER well. So I decided to keep my momentum going. I started scheduling supervised "Zuko time" in that room. Not while I'm sleeping, since I really can't afford to have extra things waking me up at night. But I'm letting him in on mornings when I'm not going into the office, or evenings when I feel like relaxing in my bedroom is more comfortable than the couch.
y'all... I cannot even begin to explain how happy Zuko is when he gets to come into the bedroom. Loudest purring I've ever heard from him. He decided he needed to try and chew on every electrical cord in the room, so I had to figure that out. But otherwise he LOVES finally being in a room that's been off limits for 7 years! Here he is helping me post on AO3 yesterday lol. It's really sweet, and I'm hoping this will help me keep everything tidy.
