Nice clean closet under the stairs (and a bonus closet)

Yes, that large white thing is a single mattress tipped up on end. It is zipped in a dust mite proof type protector. That mattress was under oldest's bed. It is an extra. Now the box spring that goes with that same mattress is out of oldest's closet and under his bed.

Peeking past the mattress.

The whole area is now empty, except for old athletic shoes and a battery lantern and a case of water. My husband has always wanted this area for a tornado shelter. It is deep in the middle of the house, with no windows. The sewing machines can be easily/quickly unplugged and set outside the room. That is an ironing board, far right side of the picture, leaning against the art shelves behind the door.

I now have room for a nice waste basket. When I am using the serger, I can pull the waste basket over in front of the machine so the cuttings fall directly into it.

Are you wondering where the masses of pictures frames (formerly in the nook under the stair treads) moved?

Oldest's closet, which is also more of a room than a closet.

These are the before pictures -

No idea how we ended up with top shelf empty and . . .

. . .everything on the floor.
The tall white item on the far right, front of the picture is boxed springs which are now under his bed. Mattress moved downstairs.

After pictures -

Those built in shelves are 39 1/2" x 69".
For comparison, a twin mattress is 39" x 75".I have not yet found the bin of Playmobile.
But, I'll know where that buffalo is when I find it.

All the framed pictures fit in three very large bins which I had (empty) in the attic. This is much safer for all the glass. As each picture is more upright and not leaning. Very little weight on each one. Downstairs, there was a lot of leaning weight.

This is the other wall, with odds and ends from college,
(oldest, on his list for when he is home)
and hanging over flow from youngest's closet.

There are three very large pieces of luggage, with smaller pieces in them, in this closet.

Bins on top shelf mostly hold seasonal decorations which I do not want in heat of attic.

There is a huge bin of Legos, a bin with several sets of Marbleworks, two bins of Polly pockets, ditto several sets of Lincoln Logs, American girl doll clothes, Brio train sets, play dough cut outs/rolling pins, a Lite Bright set, and probably several other sets I am forgetting. They stay very clean in bins. Easy to pull out when we have little visitors.

And some Costume pieces which are too big for white zip, hanging bags in laundry room - witches hats, broom, for example.

Blue bin on small shelves with oldest's college stuff is full of his snow gear (he is sledding and tobogganing and skating with friends when he is home over Christmas break, some years he is shoveling . . .).

Bins with white lids, on floor under huge shelves and on bottom shelf, are full of packed children's books. They are sorted and labeled.

Black file box, is full of oldest's important papers. Each child got one in grade school, made files, learned what to keep. When he needs something, he calls one of us, we go look for the number or date for him. Some times we scan and send whole copy. These boxes are source of pride and ownership and maturity for each kid. They also maintain an award, activity, service hours list on line so they have dates, contact names for filling out applications. Kids start filling out own paperwork in third grade. It takes a lot of years to learn to do all that independently. No one feels abandoned or parentified, it is a common goal to get them on their feet.

More on the closet under the stairs

If you are trying to place this closet, under the stairs, in my house, this might help -

2013
This is the studio, my back is to the window. That is the corner of a dresser, the open glass door goes to the entry way/front door. You can see the open/lit closet under the stairs. (Yes, that is the Christmas tree skirt on the dresser. It never really has a home because I do not like it in the attic. And no, it will not fit in the dresser.  I think normally it hangs in a closet somewhere.)

2013
You can still see the door to the entry way on the left, the door you can now see to the right goes into the stairs/backdoor/kitchen.

2013
Same door to kitchen area. Now you can see the elliptical.

2013
Now I am standing in door to closet under the stairs, looking toward the window. You can just see the front leg of the elliptical in the left corner of the picture. The door to the kitchen is behind the elliptical, to the left side of this picture. On the floor in the middle of the room is middle's bulletin board pile.  That dresser came in the truck from cleaning out husband's mother's house. (It will go with middle when she moves (years from now). The mirror that goes with it is being stored behind the bed in oldest's room.) The door to the entry way is on the right side of this picture. 

Middle and I think we started cleaning out the closet under the stairs in 2009. I think something happened with my mom's husband (like maybe he had a heart attack and then his lungs filled and kidney's started to fail.).

It was project interrupt-us. And we never got back to closet.

We think we started again in 2010 early summer and (honestly), mother's husband broke hip/hospital/nursing home/legal stuff/mom cried all summer.

Project interrupt-us again. We never got back to the closet.

I am not sure if we started in 2011 (I don't think so).

I know we did not start in 2012 (graduations, broken foot, mayo, college orientation, apt hunting on east coast, three kids starting in three new schools).

Project that actually happened in 2013 (YEA!)

BEFORE PICTURES -

2013
 I did take before pictures of the rest of the room after I realized this was going to turn into a whole room project. This is standing in the studio looking straight on, into the closet. (As I said, closet is an odd word. It is actually a tiny room, under the stairs.) 

And if you compare the organization of the white shelving unit in this 2013 picture with the picture from 2009 (above link), I actually did make progress in either 2009 or 2010, before project interrupt-us hit. 

The large pile in the middle of the room is actually a chair with mending on it. The large pile in front of the chair is my sewing table with a sewing machine directly in front of the chair and a yellow serger, closer to the camera, on the corner of the table. There is a bulletin board above the table. There is a peg board full of thread spools above the board. 

Camera shifted slightly to right. (The art shelves are directly behind that door.)

This the framed picture storage corner. And that corner looks much better than the 2009 picture above too. (Art shelves are to right of the blue vacuum cleaner.)

Art shelves behind door, looking out into studio. 

Standing next to framed art corner, there is the sewing table with the serger. No, I am not exactly sure what is in the corner under the outside light timers.

Here is what it looked like when middle hauled everything off the white cubbie shelves and spread it out on the floor for us to sort - 

Here is what it looked like when we had taken care of a lot of the stuff, and were down to the dwindles (which I hate) -

The after pictures will pop up tomorrow.

Back to the closet under the stairs

2009
These are the shelves behind the door in the big closet under the stairs. Closet is sort of an under statement. It is more like a small, odd shaped room.  My darling wood working guy who is slowly losing it, made these shelves long ago (they were in my husband's office at the old house). This is a 2009 picture of the shelves. We cleaned them out in 2010 and art supplies moved here. I do not have a picture of that mess, to the best of my knowledge. But take our word for it, the 2010-2012 art mess looked even worse than this 2009 quilting mess.

Memorial Weekend 2013

Youngest was studying for finals. My husband was sort of puttering around the house. Middle was working on bulletin boards for her dorm and finishing painting letters. Middle was sitting on the studio floor working. The closet under the stairs connects to the studio. I sort of do better if I have company while I clean. Like if you brought your knitting or your lap top and chatted with me while I cleaned, every day, I would have a very clean house.

Memorial Weekend Sunday, I started digging through the shelving unit directly behind the door, because that is where the art supplies now live. I was specifically looking for supplies that might work for middle's bulletin boards.

Did not think to take a picture before I started, because I was not thinking - "cleaning" nor was I thinking "post". Instead I was thinking - look to be sure of what we have before we buy more (bulliten board stuff).

Those art supply shelves were a total wreck. They looked like we had all just short of shoved things in so art stuff would be together, but it sooooooo was not organized.

I ended up taking everything off the shelves and sorting into piles on the floor of the studio (around middle) to see what there even was.

And then it only made sense to maintain the organization. So, I found bins here there and everywhere in the house and attic, organized some more, and put everything back on the shelves. Honestly I did not pitch much. A few things went in paper recycling. Mostly it just needed organized.

2013
Sunday night picture - At that point, I couldn't get far enough away from those shelves to get the whole thing in the picture. The bottom shelf is hidden from view. But you get the general idea. Very tidy.

2013
Monday morning - 24 hours later - picture -  it was slightly fuller and even more tidy. I had also figured out if I moved the chair (out), there was a heck of a lot more room to get a picture and clean. Anyone recognize that bright yellow box? Have one at your house? Those are plastic stencils made by Tupperware. We have had them a very long time.

Monday afternoon - four hours later - final picture. Not only was all the stuff that was originally on the shelves organized and back on the shelves, but major other things from around the house (that fall in the arts and craft category like bead supplies, paint, stencils, etc) are now also on these shelves. AND several of the bins, including one of the large ones on the top shelf are EMPTY for future use. All those bins were floating around the house. I did not go buy any of them for this project. A few of them (like the stencils) were already filled and just needed a (better) place to live. Most (bins) were in the attic, empty. 

Framed Needle Work

This first framed, cross stitch piece is why I decided to include this set of pictures for 4th of July.

I did not make this one. I got the kit and then discovered it was wool. Very allergic to wool. I once attended a wool/quilting demonstration, didn't touch a thing, sat in the back of the room, and was covered in hives by the end. So a friend very kindly made it for me.

The same lady that made the first one, made this second one for me. This time it wasn't wool. But the count on the cloth was too high, weave too small, for me. If you know me well, you will realize the irony. The illustration needs a box of saltine crackers perched on the edge of the tub. My bath tub reading was definitely enabling of my obesity. I no longer read in the tub. I also no longer eat saltine crackers. I now only listen to audible books, in the car, and I do not eat in the car (unless I am stopped for an actual packed meal, on the road). And if you are feeling like I took advantage of this friend, do not. Many a time she brought me a mess of a quilt to straighten. The worst one I can recall is before she understood about bias. She ended up with the straight of the grain on the inside and the bias on the outside of every block in a quilt. By the time she brought it to me to put on the borders, there was many inches (like 6-8") difference between one side of the quilt length and the other. Ditto with width. A real mess. And it was expensive fabric and a commissioned piece for someone else. I did get it all to work/straighten/square. But it was a heck of a job.

I bought this one at GoodWill, took it out of a really terrible frame, hand washed, re-blocked, had it framed in a style I liked.  I have found lots of good handwork pieces over the years at resale shops. I have re-framed and given as gifts also (great baby ones with no name for example). This is setting on a shelf at the end of our bed, if you are wondering about the odd angle of the picture.

This is another GoodWill find. I think I have actually bought several of these other the years. It was either a class or group project or just very popular that I have found multiples. 

The poster in this same grouping was also a GoodWill find. The little print hearts I have had for many years, they are block printing. This grouping is in the other half of middle's room where the extra girls sleep when they are here.

My mother, made this one for me -

She also made this one for me -

My mother made two of these, one for each girl -

Those were in the days where it was sort of all I could do to keep her supplied with projects because that is what kept her doing well emotionally. I think this might have been when she stopped working and was home with her husband full time (in the midst of the amputation years). I found patterns, I got all the stuff, I had them framed when she was done. If you have ever tried to keep someone supplied, you will identify. She was home all the time, it was what she did beside taking care of him. She went through projects very quickly. She did lots of cross stitch, embroidered baby blankets, etc. Currently she is crocheting baby blankets for one of the NIC units (neonatal intensive care) in town.







If you know what you are looking at, you will realize, all the rest of these, made by me, are on very large weave/small count cloth (it sounds backwards to say it, but it is small count cloth, meaning there are few counts per inch because the weave is so big).

I tried in the day, with the shutter closed.

I tried at night. Every piece in this post is under glass, I had a lot of reflections, but none as bad as this one.

I have not made anything like any of these needle work pieces in many years. Cross Stitch was after my quilting years. I did not eat when I cross stitched (stains the piece very badly). So it was actually a very good activity for me in the evenings. I have known a lot of weight loss people who successfully took up knitting as a non-food evening activity.

I stopped because I started having hand and wrist issues. I was on the way to having carpel tunnel problems. I slept in a brace for a while, to teach myself to keep my wrist straight while I slept. And then I have been mostly fine ever since.

My thought process was literally - it is more important for my wrists and hands to be able to hold free weights or to hold the weight of my body in a plank or side plank, than it is to hold a needle. Weight bearing work and resistance work is SUPER important for all of us, younger years and as we age.

I also thought - I do not want surgery.

And - exactly how many pieces of needle work does one house actually need?







This one was made my middle, long ago, on super big weave cloth.

Puzzle Chalk Board

Middle had a bottle of chalk board paint sort of burning a hole in her pocket. 

We had bought the paint intending for her to turn the cheap kind of long, skinny mirror that goes on the back of a door, into a chalk board. She painted a small corner of the mirror and was not pleased with the quality.

We had not bought the long mirror, someone had given it to middle, cheap quality. So the chalk board paint was a really good idea for this mirror. And she would have loved, long, skinny, slightly funky chaulk board in her dorm room. The paint could not be returned, because we had broken the seal/used it. So, when the mirror was a painting no go, we were left with the paint.

So then, we did the 'what can be turned into a chalk board?' walk in every store we visited.

We looked carefully all through the unfinished wood section of local craft stores.

In the end, we were going to buy a plain old board, because we could not find anything we liked.

Then we saw these puzzle pieces.

PERFECT for middle because puzzle pieces are a symbol for autism and she is a early ed/special ed double major especially interested in BACA (Behavior Analysis Centers for Autism which are very specialized schools geared toward early intervention with preschool autism kids).

It wasn't until we got all the way home and youngest was reading the label that we discovered these puzzle pieces are actually intended to be painted and used as chalk boards. . .

Two packages make a nice square.

Close up of chalk on the painted surface.

She took this one with the pieces on the floor, but if you ignore the carpeting, it looks like it is hanging on a wall. These will be hung on her dorm room wall.