No New Year Resolutions for me. Been there, done that, and kept pretty much none of them. So, this year, I’ve decided that I will have one major mission (I do kind of have another one, but if I tell you about it I will have to kill you). And, of course, being who I am, I intend to blog about the mission throughout the year.

Operation Reverse Pandora*

So, my mission for this year is to sort out the storage in the house. One room per month – with either some leeway, or adding in the front and back garden as rooms to make it up to 12. Coo, that sounds fascinating, doesn’t it? But it will be. For example, you’ll get to glimpse into the chaos that is the current state of our storage and laugh, whimper in pain or (please, someone) marvel at how it’s just like yours.

You’ll get to read about the particular problem areas and the potential solutions I’ve thought of. And, you know, it’ll be interactive, too – in that, you can say ‘Ooh, why don’t you stick an 18th-century dresser in there, or, hmmm, throw everything out?’ And I might even listen. You never know. And then you’ll get before and after pictures. You really can’t wait, can you? Thought not.

The living room

I was going to start Operation Reverse Pandora in the basement, so that there was an organised staging area for neatly dumping stuff from all the other rooms as the mission progressed. But then I spent a considerable amount of time in the living room with the girls over the Christmas holidays and realised that it was pretty much essential to start in the living room. In term time they are out during school hours, but they still spend at least a couple of hours, usually three or four, in there in the morning and afternoon. Rosemary has friends round and the majority of the play occurs in the living room, because that’s where the majority of the toys are – and it’s the easiest place to keep an eye on them.

The problem areas

The main issue in the living room is toy storage (see above). We (well, actually, my sister) rearranged it all into boxes about six months ago. What I was aiming for was having a box with each of the different kinds of toys in – e.g. animals, dolls, cars, dressing up, etc. – with labels on the boxes (the idea was to have pictures and words, but I never got around to doing the pictures), so that a specific box could be got out when required.

The trouble is, though, that the boxes are just piled on top of each other, which makes them pretty much inaccessible to Rosemary. When she has attempted to get a box out, she’s broken the lid on another that she was climbing on to reach. So, usually, it’s a case of Rosemary saying ‘Can I have the animals box out, please?’ and one of us having to get it out for her. As time went on, it became so awkward that sometimes I would end up saying ‘No, sorry’ because I couldn’t actually manage to extricate the boxes at the bottom, without some serious manoeuvring.

So, the toy corner (or toy storage in the room – doesn’t necessarily need to be one corner – needs a huge reorganisation. What we need is easily accessible drawers of differing sizes (with pictures and words on them) inside some kind of sturdy unit(s). Ideally, we need very accessible (possibly open) storage for Eleanor-safe toys and less accessible (but easy for Rosemary and her friends to get through) storage for the rest. We do also need to clear out a bunch of stuff. Rosemary took all the cuddly toys out the other day, looking for one of her princess shoes and it turns out there’s a whole box full of baby toys that really are too young for Eleanor now. Some of these need to go in a sealed box in the basement to bring out for visiting babies and the rest need to go to the RSPCA shop or similar. I’m happy to try storage that’s not specifically designed for children, as long as it’s sturdy enough. And we also have to ensure that the window remains blocked off to the dog, so he doesn’t break that window like he did our bedroom window.

A related issue is children’s book storage. At present they are just all on the bottom shelf above the toys – with a few overflowing onto the shelf above that. Eleanor has taken to perching on the arm of the small sofa and reaching across to grab books. I did clear a route yesterday to the shelf, so that she can now access it from the ground, but she still needs reminding to do so. The books are all jammed in however they can fit and are in no senses displayed in a child-friendly manner. They also need a bit of a sort for appropriateness to Rosemary and Eleanor – there are probably a few that could be jettisoned (into the baby box or to the charity shops). And I intend to buy one of those child-facing bookcases, probably from Tidy Books, as they look like good quality, though if you have experience of any I’d love to hear. I don’t think it would fit all the books from that bottom shelf – though maybe it would – but I’d like to pick particular ones out and perhaps refresh them every couple of weeks by moving some off and putting others in their place. I’m not sure how useful this will be to Rosemary now (though perhaps I’ll be pleasantly surprised – especially if I stick some read-it-yourself books in there), but I think it will be wonderful for Eleanor.

We also need to put some more shelves up in the living room. At the very least the alcove to the left of the fireplace needs shelves and they need to be able to house my dad’s old hi-fi system, that I insisted on taking when he passed away, but so far have not set up at all, three years later. It needs to be playing music – especially jazz on a Sunday afternoon. But really we probably need at least a couple of depths of shelves on the far wall, too. For books. We have a lot of books that are sitting forlorn in boxes and really need to be out where they can be read and looked at.. and, well, gather even more dust, of course.

The other issues in the living room are high-up spaces to put things Eleanor can’t touch. The mantelpiece is so overladen it’s probably going to cause subsidence soon and the bookshelves all have tiny little people or animals or beads perching in front of the books. If you try to take a book off the shelves you cause a mini avalanche – usually resulting in concussion in at least one cuddly toy. And finding a safe space to put a cup of tea down is as challenging as The Krypton Factor.

One more thing that tends to happen is stuff gets put on the back of the big sofa. Clothes, books, post, drawings… stuff, like I said. This is probably down to the lack of flat surfaces, or places for putting things. So, we need some kind of receptacle for stuff. No idea what that would be. Any ideas?

Tasks for living room

The tasks for the living room, therefore, are:

• measure for shelving, order wood and brackets, put shelves up
• buy children’s bookcase
• measure up and research toy storage
• create a stuff receptacle of some kind
• create some space for putting cups of tea and little choking hazard bits and pieces.

Deadline

I’ve left it a little late for the first month, and only have two weeks to complete this one, so I’m going to actually give myself a deadline of 7 February, rather than the end of January.

I may do an interim post with what I’ve decided/ordered, but will definitely do a post once it’s all put together and organised. With pictures.

Next month we’ll either do the dining room, the girls’ room or our room, I think, depending on what seems to be more urgent.

 

I’d love to hear about your storage problems or storage solutions – especially (but not exclusively) any that would solve our problems above. And if  you think there might be anything I’ve missed out, do tell me! And if any wants to join me in Operation Reverse Pandora and sort your own storage out this year, feel free.

* Chris came up with the Operation Reverse Pandora title – I was just going to call it Mission 2011, but his is much catchier.