Old House Gripe

I don't have alot of complaints about this house, but I have one.  It is one that is shared by anyone who lives in a house built before, oh, I'd say the 80's...there is not enough closet space!  AAAAhhhh it drives me crazy.  I have only had adequate closet space for one year of my life, and that was when I lived in an overpriced one-bedroom apartment during my first year of law school.  It had a walk in closet and I lived alone so didn't have to share any closet or cabinet with anyone.  I know that in past decades there wasn't Old Navy and TJ Maxx and other places to buy very cheap, mass produced shoes and clothes.  For example, I probably have 20 pairs of brighty colored flat slip on shoes and I don't think I paid for than $20 for any of them.  Most of them were under $10.  Because I don't wear any one pair every day, they don't wear out and so they stay with me for years.  And keep building.  The same is true for clothing.  (I'm not saying all of my clothes and shoes are cheap...I have some good quality items as well).  This means that every closet, every shelf, every drawer is overflowing.  And I get rid of items all the time.  I never hesitate to give things to thrift stores or charity, or to throw worn out things away.  There is just never enough room and it drives me crazy!  It's not about the size of the house, either.  The house I lived in from the time I was 7 until I moved away from home as an adult (I shouldn't say I have moved away because alot of my crap is still there!) is a cavernous 6 bedroom farmhouse with bedrooms much larger than those built in new houses.  Storage remains a problem, however.  Every closet is tiny.  One of the rooms doesn't even have it's own closet!  My dad added a door that allows it to share with another room's closet when we moved in there.   My dad grew up in that house, and after he and his siblings were gone in the 80's my grandparents resorted to turning two of the unused bedrooms into huge storage closets.  It's a battle to prevent that from happening again. 

I greatly reduced my childhood belongings a over Christmas break a few years ago and brought four huge black garbage bags of old clothes and random crap to a thrift store.  Another two bags went in the trash.  The excess closet space in my old room was immediately filled with gift wrapping supplies and coats by my mom.  In the two little bathrooms there are no cabinets to speak of besides the ones under the sinks.  In the bathroom belonging to us (the kids) there is a little decorative gardening table that is covered with the items that would be in a cupboard, such as my brother's 5 cans of shaving cream that are all half used and cans of hair product that date back to 2002.  Cleaning is infuriating because every time you do so, you have to move all of that crap around and if one thing gets knocked over it is like a domino effect. 

One might say that it would be nice to have a large attic and a large basement to be filled with excess crap.  However, both the basement and attic environments are not suitable for storing anything you really care about.  The basement is cool and damp like a cellar and that attic has no climate conrol and turns into a sauna during summer and gets so cold during winter that everything has a layer of frost over it.  It's a good thing rubbermaid tubs were invented to protect all of our Christmas decorations and old toys!  (Oh, the toys...they are everywhere!  (Just waiting for grandchildren, right Mother?!)  Everywhere you look there are toy tractors and cars that belong to my brother.  There are boxes of old children's books and barbies.  There is a huge tub of legos somewhere and bags of stuffed animals.   My nephew visited the farm one night and thought the attic was the most magical, fascinating place he had ever seen!  At least someone appreciates it and doesn't see it as a filthy, dusty, freezing/steaming room full of crap. 

What I am trying to say is that I get really frustrated with not having enough space and I know many other people feel the same frustrations with their not-so-new houses.  Not living space, of course, but storage space.  I hate  that my clothes are always mashed together and when all of our hanging shirts are clean there is not room for one more hanger in the closet.  I hate that my jeans and sweatshirts and sweaters are piled so high on the little shelves that I can't reach the ones at the top and if I try to grab one in the middle the whole tower falls over and I have to refold.  I hate that my shoes are piled up and get scuffed by other shoes when I dig for the pair I want. 

I had to face this issue a few days ago when I decided to address a problem in our coat closet.  This closet is also where we keep shoes and it is a disaster.  We had a cheap, pressed wood shoe shelf on the floor in there that had mountains of shoes piled on top of it.  It buckled under the weight and the wood cracked.  It was a sliver waiting to happen and also the screws were poking out.  I decided I couldn't take it anymore so I went to Target and bought this new metal one...

Ahhh..it looks so pristine...with most of the shoes gone and half of the coats removed.  I have a photo of the mountain of shoes but it was kind of gross looking so I will spare you.  It's must better...for now. 

The Mundane. . .

Two days ago, while Justin was toiling outside to finish removing the rock lanscaping in our yard, I was looking out the window and realized something that filled me with dread. I almost pretended I didn't see it. . .the blinds on the window were very very dirty and covered with a layers of dust. They had residue of the yellowish sawdust that I thought was finally gone after weeks of cleanup after we sanded and refinished the wood floors. I knew what I had to do and I didn't like it-I had to take the blinds down and clean them! Ugh. . .

I recall my mom cleaning the blinds on the farm a few times a year. Blinds are her window treatment of choice so there were alot to clean. I can't say I ever helped with the process at all, but I always thought it looked like a drag.

Have you ever been to a Norwex party, with it's feel-g00d emphasis on earth friendly, chemical free cleaning products and procedures for moms who don't want their kids exposed to chemicals and fumes? The parties feature microfiber cloths and sponges that can apparently kill bacteria with only water and laundry soap so natural that it biodegrades once it goes down the drain. (By the way, I'm not mocking Norwex. . .I have some of the products myself and they do work for general cleaning) To imagine my mom's cleaning philosophy, picture the complete opposite of that, and imagine large quantities of bleach, Pine-sol, Palmolive, Ajax, and cup of Tide filled to Line 3. In her defense, I don't think many Norwex consultants live in 120 year old houses with poor ventilation and have to wash the clothes of farmers who end the day with clothing soiled with agricultural pesticides and jeans caked with mud around the bottoms. Her weapon of choice for the blinds, which quickly accumulate grime due to the houses proximity to gravel roads and open windows all summer long, is a nice soak in the bath tub in a nice, gentle ammonia and water mix.

Our blinds were pretty dirty because they haven't been cleaned for probably a year or more. I don't have any ammonia so I read on the Internet that dish soap could work. I have never hung or removed blinds so I had to figure out how to take them down before I started. It was easy! Imagine that! I soon discovered that the blinds for the main window were way too long for the tub so I sprayed them with the garden hose and scrubbed them in the back yard and left them on a bed of towels to dry in the sun.

The smaller sets fit in the tub, and I got them all clean, but not without alot of pestering from Allan.

He is the snoopiest cat ever!

I was so happy to finish the chore but I wasn't in the clear yet. . .when I was perched on the arm rest of the couch trying to snap the blinds back into place (much more difficult that taking them down) I noticed a smear of red on them! Aahh! It was blood! And it was coming from me! I had cut my hand, at the base of my thumb, and I hadn't even felt it! Gross. At least I won't have to worry about cleaning the blinds for many months.

On a different topic, we have several large peony bushes in the back yard. There are many buds ready to open and I thought that, since there were so many flowers on the way, I would make a bouquet! I looked it up on the Internet and learned that I should cut blooms that were just opening.

They look and smell so pretty! I love the dark red one! I think there is a lighter pink bush as well, but they weren't ready to open yet. . .that will be my next attempt at flower arrangement!

Since returning from Fargo I have been trying to fit the clothes I had there back into the available space (and there isn't much!) I put a big stack of sweaters away and replaced them with shorts and skirts that had been stored in a plastic tub. I pulled a drawer out to arrange it and Allan crawled right into the lower drawer! He is always in my business.

El Bano

We're going to Mexico in a few days so I might be incorporating some Spanish into my posting! Sorry, I don't know how to add the tilde symbol above the "N"!

I have been irritated by the condition of my areas of the bathroom for awhile. I was going to organize it after we were completely moved, but of course I never did. So now I finally did! I have always kept my cosmetics in a big makeup bag. The problem with that situation is that I have to dig for everything and all of the compacts, the lovely silvery clinique compacts as well as the cheaper drugstore ones, end up scuffed, broken, and streaked. The makeup bag ends up the same way-gross, full of pulverized eyeshadows, and generally nasty. I saw these little boxes in the $ aisle at Target and thought they would serve my purpose.

Some of you may think it still looks pretty chaotic. . . you should have seen it before! I sure love that huge cabinet!

I also have a bunch of crap in the linen closet, such as hairspray, rarely used products like aloe vera gel for sunburn, and, apparently, an aresenal of makeup bags that could rival the number of makeup bags in my old sorority house belonging to all of the girls combined. What you are seeing isn't even all of them! I threw one away and eliminated a few before we moved and there are a few more in that big grey bag you can see protruding in the corner! In my defense, I get all of these for free when I buy Clinique products and I don't bother donating them because the thrift stores and rummage sales are already full of them (apparently I'm not the only one with this habit.)
Justin's basement project is now finished. Well, not completely because there is no carpet or furniture yet, but last night he covered the nail holes in the baseboards and tonight he painted them. I haven't taken pictures of it yet, but it looks the same as it did in previous pictures so you can refer back if you like!

Goodbye "Root Cellar"

Under our basement staircase is a storage room. It was fulled from the floor to the ceiling with shelves of wood that were perfectly placed to hold jars. That, combined with the big, weedy patch in our back yard, leads me to believe that the previous owners enjoyed canning and preserving vegetables.

My mom used to make pickles at the farm. We had a garden that was placed in a small field in our yard which used to be a pasture. The weeds were unstoppable, but for a few years we managed to grow a good variety of vegetables and even pumpkin patches. Most important were the cucumbers and the dill! Oh, I love the smell of dill. . .it makes my mouth water whenever I smell it. . .

Unfortunately, the shelves, although numerous, were not practical for our storage needs. So last night Justin ripped them all out and replaced them with new shelves!

I never took a picture of the previous shelves before started working, but I got a few in the process and after. This is what is in there: empty boxes for future present giving, things we use occassionally be don't have room for in the kitchen and luggage and air mattresses. Oh, so much crap everywhere! At least it's nice to have it all with us and not strewn about at our parents' houses and in a storage unit.
It was cute to discover behind the shelves some carving in the wall done by the children who used to live here (they are all adults now). Very cute! I almost want to carve my own name down there!

A Post to Honor the Despised Storage Equipment

Tonight we finally moved the final, last, most unloved items from the apartment. It is a huge relief because I don't think I can climb those three flights of stairs anymore...it's OK on a regulary daily basis, but this has been exhausting. Not suprisingly, what was left were a few of the things I loathe the most when it comes to moving. They are items that I have been looking forward to getting rid of every time I move, but never do because I still require the storage.





This horrible wire unit was purchased in the fall of 2003. It was one of the first nights Ashley (the person I usually refer to as Roommate) and I were spending back at KD after summer had ended and Junior year was starting and we were trying to get our room situated (they were very small rooms.) We realized we had a problem so we headed to Wal-Mart at about 11:00 pm to find a solution. We were silly and giggly the whole time and eventually settled on this modular thing that you could configure to fit the room and your needs. We pointlessly debated about purchasing a black or white one, and chose the one pictured above. For the next two years this cage-like thing was snapped into all different shapes. The boxes were separated then reconnected. When we graduated, she so very graciously let me keep it and every time I move I hate snapping it apart and back together again. We moved it whole this time...and it's new life is as a laundry room utility shelf. As much as it has irritated me over the years, it has served a good purpose.

This cheap looking shoe bag was another college necessity. I think I chose it because it was the cheapest one and I still dislike it. It was also purchased in 2003 and has been with me everywhere. Everytime you try to move it the whole thing flops around and the shoes fall everywhere. Every time I move, I think I might throw it away, but I never do. Those little worn dress shoes need to go somewhere, right? Now they will hang in one of our extra basement closets, rarely to see the light of day, still trapped in their cheap cardboard and plastic barrier.

I have multiple sets of these cheesy plastic drawers in my life. I have one that holds clothes (still!) which I have wanted to eliminate since I moved to law school. Alas, I still have it because eliminating it would mean eliminating clothes. Not happening! The one pictured above is full of stationary, office supplies, and old cell phone parts. It says "Neameyer" on the back because at some point Roommate and I ended up switching and never switched back. I'm going take a risk and say she probably doesn't want to see this unit ever again. Neither do I, but with me it will stay...probably forever...

After the Cyclone

We just had the "Internets" and cable activated at the house today. I hadn't seen the internet since (gasp!) Sunday! And I was in Fargo all weekend for some NDSU tailgating (and I'm ready for more!) But now I'm back in action...

Actually, I haven't had time for the TV and the computer for the last few days anyway. On Monday morning, Justin left for Wyoming for a few days and I have been moving the last remnants of crap out of the apartment and trying to organize the house. It is really out of control and I feel like there is no end in sight. Today I made progress, but you wouldn't be able to tell. Most of my work consisted of putting everything away in the kitchen. I unpacked some wedding presents that we haven't had room to use before (and that is pretty much everything except the basics such as plates, glasses, and silverware).

How grown up does this cabinet make me look? Don't be decieved!
I'll take more pictures when it looks better around here...no one needs to see it right now!