When is a clutter not a clutter? When it's well stored, and when you are thrilled to be able to find it easily and put it back into use.


Case in point (flunk)-- my mom's almost-antique waffle iron. I BET I put it in a cool, dry place the day we moved into this house in 1994. In plain sight. Where I could not SEE it until yesterday.... because I did not label the box that I'd stowed safely in a lower kitchen cabinet. Out it comes, and the crappy new one goes in the camper, forthwith!

Case in point (pass)-- The CPU tower that still does some things VERY well which we replaced when we mistakenly thought it had died, which is right where it will end up being used-- a handy storage shelf in the home office upstairs-- now that a friend is donating a monitor to go with the already-donated printer up there that I have been running off laptops that will be better used elsewhere. Especially if I can figure out how to make its internet wireless (I think Hardi has to buy me another wireless card). Aw heck I'll let HIM figure it out, the dear. (He doesn't have strokebrain!)


A drawer we dedicated in the kitchen is working well-- all the portability-accessories for digital tools. Where is the "XYZ"??? It's probably in there-- and it IS! Where does THIS "XYZ" go? In there; I bet it will fit and it DOES! Right where I will look for it NEXT time!


Another crashing success-- the new sheet of plywood ripped to 16" x 76" shelves to stretch across the pretty XL milkcrates that used to be linen storage at the foot of the MudDorm beds. They're still in the Dorm, but now they support the shelves. The shelves replace a twin bed that used to sit right over the least-well-supported section of floor. We gave away the cheap twin mattress, and turned the box spring into a headboard for our kingbed which also creates a little shelf for cell phones, etc. There is a twin-sized bedroll up there to roll ouit onto the box spring if we get a real crowd-- it's made from quilted furniture pads left over from a past move.

The 92-billion little bags of clean linens and stuff sent upstairs the last 6 months are all unpacked neatly onto the new shelves, with a top shelf left over for display of pretty personal items and decor. The scrap-ends of the plywood went under the extra-wide bedrisers we got cheap, and a whole LOT of ugly but needed stuff went under the beds in easy-to-pull-out boxes turned into drawers (love the dust ruffle!).

This leaves an empty corner for.... a recliner (camp chair and thrift shop ottoman)! I can SEE all my pretty thrift-shop linens. I can look, and know which ones are surplus, which are just right, and which sizes need more added as I come across them. The linens I just don't like anymore-- they'll go back to the thrift shop! :~)

The box of gospel CDs I lent a band member just came back from the house where THEY had been buried, and I found an extension cord for the CD player up there-- cool music reviewing on a hot or humid day.

The new AC up there has an automatic feature that turns on the AC ahead of time for us on hot days. The Dorm is so well insulated that it would have to be scorching enough for us to have to sleep up there for that AC to turn on the compressor and fan. Instant gratification on a hot day, instead of having to go up there and turn it on and pray that it works quickly.

The LR rugs are just dead enough now to go up to cover the still-bare portions of the stained plank floor not worth sanding. As soon as a big enough rug comes up on Freecycle we'll make the switch.


Have you ever noticed the human tendency to turn any living space into a 1-room-cabin equivalent? (Getting ready for our nursing home rooms, maybe?)

~S~


PS to MAIRE-ANNE-- the hankie thing you started for me caught on so big I have to order them online in 24-packs now!