Wow – another week already!
I actually got a project done that has been sitting awhile this past week – and ended up clearing up more things than I planned.
I have mentioned (I am sure) that I have a little village which is like a fancy Christmas village setup – but is cheap, has bears instead of people, and we now change it to seasonal “scenes”. It sits on a board on a wicker trunk – so there is no access to trunk when the board and village is on it. This is in front a window in a nook at the top of our stairs by the bedrooms and our office (which is in what should be a be a bedroom). When it was only a Christmas village there were some Christmas decoration items stored in it – I would take them out before the village was set up and put them back after it was taken down and. Since this can no longer be done as there is always a village set up there, that space in the trunk is empty and has been calling me. I have items in our third bedroom – aka the teddys' room (you did not think these bears were the only ones I have, the stuffed and non small figure ones took over the smallest bedroom some decades ago – and I have been planned to store some of the teddy bear items (I have much more than “bears” themselves) in the trunk.
Problem has been that we are always in a rush and I don't have a chance between setups – and when it is setup – well, buildings, bears, Christmas tree, heavy board have to all be removed and placed someplace safe – so I don't do it. To help me get around to dealing with storing the items while I am stuck home – when I stored the Christmas/winter village items away I left a bare number of bears out in the village. Basically the “storyline” has been that the bears are self-isolating and only certain bears are out – police, fire, those who sell food/have a restaurant, are shopping, exercising (bear on roller skates), and an accountant bear with clients sitting away from him are out. They were all spaced 6 inches apart, the size equivalent of 6 feet I figured. Husband was not happy with this as he is depressed about everything to begin with.
So earlier this week I moved the bears, buildings to safe places, and the tree out of the way and slid the board off the back. I started with some old tee shirts of great sentimental value that were out in the teddys room – I put them in a clear kitchen sized garbage bag and knotted it closed (after squeezing out the air and put it in the box. I then found a small carton of bear and some other stuff. I am guessing it has been sitting since we had the house treated for bedbugs in 2011. Some items of husband's boyhood were also in the carton and I stored much of it in the trunk. Some of it were small bear items which were good to use in the village including some bears and I set all of that aside on my office desk to keep available. I threw out some unrelated things also.
When I was finished with the carton there was a still a lot of room in the trunk. We have a stack of round plastic storage modules (1970s) and also a stereo cabinet which we had bought for and used for storing various items on its shelves. I first went through the stereo cabinet as it was in front of the plastic module stack. Some of what was in it was put there also when we had the house treated for bedbugs and I put those items back where they belonged. Others I wanted available and left in the cabinet. Other items were related to old computer games of husbands – so I put them back and mentioned them to him – he has since looked them up and when the Covid-19 problem is over and we can go to the post office again without being woried about being outside, he will put them up for sale online. I
I then pulled the stereo cabinet forward (it is on wheels) and started on the stack behind it. I tossed some items, found some more of husband's computer games – which I added to the others in the stereo cabinet and found – of course – more bear items. Again I either tossed them, put them aside to use in the village or stored them in the trunk. With the stack of plastic module empty, I removed them and pushed the stereo cabinet into where they had been – wow – it could actually be used as a bedroom now if we needed it – there is room to walk all the way to almost head of the bed. (Still a spare TV in there, spare as is there is a TV to watch in the room plus the one on the floor - have to find out if it works or not and figure out what to do with it.)
When I was finished there was still room in the trunk, but I had gone through what was there to go thru and dealt with it. I closed the top of the trunk and attempted to slide the board on top. Problem – it is a small space. While there is enough room for the board at the top of the trunk, at the bottom of the wall due to the molding along the walls, there is not enough room for the board to sit across the space – and the board had slid down on an angle and was wedged into the wall. I juggled it and managed to get it to shift, but it was too heavy for me to lift and it was then wedged into the other wall! I finally had admit to defeat and get husband to help me lift it from both sides at the same time and slide it into place on top on the top of the trunk. Next time I will not be lazy – I will remove the board from the area as I used to do to store it in the basement during the year – so this will not happen again.
I replaced the buildings, tree and bears – dusted it all first. I added a few of the newly found bears also. I then took the plastic modules downstairs. Husband saw me doing this - “You are not throwing those out are you?” I asked if he had a use for them – he did not, just did not want them tossed out “in case”. I explained that I planned to replace a storage piece located behind my work table in our studio with it and said that was fine – he just did not want it thrown out. One module either had green paint in it or a piece of green plastic or such melted in when we had the bed bug treatment (they heat the house VERY HOT for the treatment) and I told him I will throw that one module out if I cannot clean it.
So right now, the stack of modules, the empty carton and the problem module are in our dining room waiting for me to now move out the storage piece from behind my work table to put the stack there. The carton will go out to our porch to use for putting out recycling when again our township is collecting them. The other piece of the module piece I will see if I can clean.
The storage piece behind my studio work table came as a small cabinet with/to sit over my computer desk and I did not want it there then – I will see what we can do with it when I move the stuff out of it (ribbons, laces, rolls of velcro and such) or it will end up getting tossed out when life and garbage collection are more normal.
As to the bears – we have decided that the bears “decided” that since it over 2 weeks, all of the bears have continuously been in our house and none of them are sick – the spring village can be set up and I hope to do so this coming week.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If you are stuck in your house – use the time to do projects you have not had time to do. If you have children – perhaps you can get them to “help” you to keep them busy. Yes, they may be more trouble than help, but if you try to make a game out of it or give a prize for the one does the most, finds the most etc. it will keep them busy also.
Please take care of yourself and yours – stay well.
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