A STEP FORWARD

It is amazing how fast a week goes past.  This applies both to posting on this blog as well as to getting things done.
       
Last night I finally got around to moving our DVD storage box (a piece of furniture on wheels) from the dining room back to our living room.  Why does it get moved?  Well, in December it has to be moved as the Christmas tree goes in the living room where the box normally is kept.  Normally in our dining room our table is pushed to the far wall.  (This was the normal thing to do in the 1700s.  Furniture was kept along the walls. One would move out what one needed and then put it back after it was done being used.  This was called putting the room to rest.)  It matches the period of the room.  Our table is 40"x40" when closed down.  So when it is moved against the wall there is space in the room to walk around and space for any other uses we may find for the room.  It also cuts down on how much stuff gets tossed on the table as it is further away from traffic in the room so one has to actually walk over to it to put anything on it.  When the DVD storage box is in the dining room for Christmas the dining room table is moved to the center of the room - great for Christmas decorating.

The DVD storage box has extra DVDs on top of it.  Last year I got rid of unused drinking glasses (almost never used in the almost 38 years we have been married) by donating them, and move some of our “good” glasses from the secretary in the living room into the now free space in the kitchen as that freed up space for DVD storage and had stored away all of the DVDs that were on top of the box - except for one set.  Oddly there seems to now be more DVDs on top of the box than I found room to store last year.  I will have to figure out what else to get rid of from the secretary - or where else glassware in it can be stored - to make more room for husband’s DVDs.  Lots of bar ware which has never been used - I hope to talk him into getting rid of it.  For those who might not know as it is no longer a common furniture piece - a secretary is a cabinet with glass doors (generally with green fabric curtains on the inside of the doors) in front of shelves for the top section and large drawers in the bottom section.  Between the two sections is a door that opens downward and makes a desk area - hence the name.  We used it as a bar with storage for same, plus other ‘good” glassware on the top shelves and for storage of items such as tablecloths and napkins in the drawers.

So, yes, I am still putting away things which were moved for Christmas.  The dining room table is back against the wall.  However, I had left a board in it just in case husband wanted to use it to take photos of table runners he has woven, but it is rare that he does so.  I will pull out the board and store it in the front hall closet - the four boards are stored in a crateish piece that they came in, which is located behind the coats in this closet.  I also have to put back a roll up foam pad and a green felt cover for the dining room table which came out of the same closet during the holidays and never went back. 

Lest you think I now have a lovely neat dining room now - I still have the large plastic boxes to store the teddy bear Christmas village in, as well as “gift” boxes which have Christmas decorations in them - the boxes go under the tree after the decorations are taken out and it makes it look like there are gifts under the tree.  These “gift” boxes store in the trunk that the teddy village is on and cannot be put away until the village is packed.  I took assorted reenacting items which we are not using at the current time and had been stored in one of the box benches we bring to events and had not been bringing, but had to come out of same when we started taking the box bench to events again, into a single fabric bag and put that on the box bench until we can figure out what to do with it.  There are also some items from our RV which have to go down to their new home in the basement.

Tell me, honestly, are all of your Christmas items stored away yet?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Anything done is a step forward.  Every step forward takes you on your journey to a neater, more organized house.  If a step backwards happens - work at getting back to where you were and then taking a step forward.  Walking is one step after another, so is organizing.