One day whilst walking over to the cattle yards behind the farmhouse I saw a ladder leaning against the shed. An old, rustic, industrial-looking ladder. Can you hear the cogs turning in my mind? A quick dust off and that ladder was in our bedroom faster than you can say rustic-industrial-storage-solution.
There’s a settling in period when you move into a new house, at first the space seems all weird and gangly, then eventually the fog clears and you started to see what’s needed, what works, what used to work in your old house and now doesn’t. Refine, reuse, reduce, repurpose.
Here at the farmhouse the fog is lifting, the moving dust has settled and one thing is for sure: this big ol’ house has no storage. Don’t get me wrong, the massive spaces are awesome – big rooms, high ceilings, lots of space…just no cupboards, the big bedrooms and wide hallway are just big empty bedrooms and a wide empty hallway. Well except now with boxes pushed against walls as I have nowhere to store all those towels, sheets, clothes, shoes, craft supplies, photography gear…so why unpack the boxes? Sigh.
Lucky for us we seem to hoard furniture, mainly chests of drawers and dressers. Most of our clothes (ahem, Matt’s clothes, he has soooo many more clothes than me, true story) live in these drawers now. Great storage but makes our bedroom look like the place where old chests of drawers go to die. And my collection of scarves, bags and belts were sitting in a plastic storage tub in the corner. Not good enough.
The ladder is a lot higher than I thought it would be, I might need Matt to help me get my bags from the top! But it’s perfect in the space between my great-grandmothers dresser and yet another chest of drawers. And on reflection when I stand back and look I don’t have that many belts/bags/scarves*. Right?
Got storage issues?
Other farmers wives found anything leaning on a shed?
How many chests of drawers in one room is weird?
*Please note this is most certainly not all my belts/bags/scarves, the ladder is a work in progress and the rest of my collection is strewn on our bed…
Kathy says
I agree that the old houses have big rooms but having no storage is crazy but it’s the way it was in the day. Your ladder idea looks likek a winner. Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia
Sharon says
ps have found two (realllly vintage) big industrial style pendant lights in the shed that I remember arriving but only just noticed their coolness the other day. have yet to negotiate the delicate problem of how to get them in my possession, one currently being the sole “shed light”.
Emma says
Oh I did exactly the same in our old house! After many evenings of exasperation trying to explain to Matt the lights I wanted for our kitchen I was in the shed one day talking to him and looked up – ‘Those! Just like those!’ He got it, but kept the shed ones, I bought two new white ones, which are now under our spare bed not being used…ho hum.
Sharon says
what a great place to store the scarves! I say with winter coming on, put the bags back in storage and make it all scarves and one rung for belts!
and I take your chests of drawers and raise you a mob of wardrobes. my bedroom has 5 wardrobes, a dressing table, a chest of drawers AND a linen cupboard (and still clothes in a pile in a basket – which is actually more laziness than anything!)
Emma says
Ha! Ok you win! We have two chests of drawers, my dressing table, a wardrobe, a clothes rack and our bedside tables with three drawers full of STUFF. And the obligatory clothes in a basket somewhere. Having no linen cupboard is a killer, we’ve had to repossess my sewing/fabric cupboard to put in our bathroom (luckily a big bathroom with room for a freestanding wardrobe type thing). E x