For
older neighborhoods like ours, finding space for anything proves problematic.
Our house, built in the mid-1960s, originally paced out as a 1,000 square foot
three bed, one bath, and a one car garage home. Typical for the time period,
the builder designed about seven different floorplans with some including one
more bedroom, bathroom and a luxurious two car garage. To optimize our cottage,
we converted our garage into half storage on the garage door end and a
permanent wall that gave us another room originally used for an office. Nice
bi-fold doors separated the laundry and pantry from the office. Many of our
neighbors have done a similar change, and some have sacrificed their garage
completely.
Since
our backyards stretch to comfortable sizes, outdoor storage sheds, ranging from
utilitarian to She Sheds, grew throughout the area. We opted to go with an
addition to the back and planted a hot tub and gardens instead of a shed.
Eventually, we relied upon renting additional storage, especially once Mom
moved into our home.
Our
purge through storage units, both attics, and our half-garage area ate up years
of “Keep, Give Away, Toss” until last year found me tackling the garage once
more time and replacing old containers with neat, matching, reinforced bins. Everything
now has its own place, but there’s absolutely no room for more unless I enforce
my rule “One thing in, a like thing out.”
I’ve turned away from adding
outside, holiday decorations because they are often wooden or metal and always bulky.
Until
a last year when the cost of inflatable decorations dropped onto shelves in At
Home, Home Depot, and Walmart! One sturdy, stackable bin can hold several Halloween
decorations, a Thanksgiving turkey, and a Christmas snowman and Christmas
cactus! Within the box we have two projectors and all of the necessary
extension cords, too. And there’s room
for more! We hope to add to the collection with uniquely incredible holiday
choices each year.
Copyright 2024 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman
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