Shoe wrangling

I think I may have reached a low point in how mundane I can make a blog entry: today I'm going to write about organizing shoes!

We live in a house without closets, and like most families we have tons of seasonal outerwear and footwear of all persuasions.

I also have a completely different philosophical approach to cleaning than my husband. He is what I would call a stoic. He sees the mess and dirt, then dutifully picks everything that's strewn around (say shoes) up, cleans thoroughly, then puts everything back in an orderly fashion. Usually it's a mess again within hours, but at least he's done his duty.

I, on the other hand, have a fundamental antipathy toward any type of tidying that takes work, and to any type of cleaning that requires me to pick things up and then put them back again afterward. So basically, unless there is a good system in place, I never clean. That's not good.

This weekend I reached a breaking point on our entry way. I knew we needed a system for all our stuff, so I broke down and spent a bunch of money on a coat rack and a wall-mounted shoe rack.

Here's the before of our shoes (not including any winter shoes, I might add...):

There's no way I'm picking all that up to vacuum. But this I can handle:

Yay! 13 cm of clearance under the shoes means that I don't have to pick up a thing to vacuum! Unfortunately, I need to buy a second rack (with two shelves) to corral absolutely all of the footwear that we typically have out, but now at least I know that there is a solution to the problem. We just need three big hooks on one of the other walls for our three backpacks, and the hall will be perfect.

Oh my gosh, I was just about to write and say that my hands hurt too much from all the assembling of various things to knit, when I realized I didn't mention the most important organizational home improvement around here. Ta-da:

Here's a little corner of my "roterom." It's one of the two "Billy" bookcases. This one is filled with yarn, fabric, and craft books (oh, and the compact edition of the OED). I know that this isn't much of a stash compared to many, but it's enough to make me feel guilty. I hope that seeing it all will help me curb any desire to buy more before I've used up a lot of this. The other bookcase (out of the picture to the left) is filled with my small library of beloved books that came overseas with me. The bags on hooks each contain a work-in-progress.

I love getting things organized! Even I can clean when there is a logical place to put things. I just hope my hands recover from all the assembly...

ETA: a very juvenile (and very funny) short video on swearing in Norway. I love kids like this.

Små steg

Little by little we're starting to move into the main part of the house. First priority was getting E's bedroom set up. I think he really likes it, and has been asking every day for one of us to come play with him in his room. It doesn't show in the picture, but the room has a really high ceiling, so even though it's on the dark side of the house (facing the granite wall) and is relatively small, it has a good feel. Still need to get another "Trofast" frame from Ikea for the blue bins. I like the thought that this is where he'll be until he leaves home, the room he will most identify as his "gutterom."

Over the weekend KE's nephew helped us move the refrigerator over, so now we're cooking on this side of the duplex. Of course we haven't bothered to move everything over at once, so it seems like we have to run over to the other side to get something for each meal we prepare. But we have gotten our kitchen stuff from the States out of storage, and I was happy to see the cheerful Fiestaware again!

For right now KE and I are sleeping on foam mattresses in the living room and using the smaller bedroom on this side as a storage room and staging ground for the move. I'm actually sleeping much better here in the living room, which really surprises me. Yesterday I put the quilt that Grannie made for me on the bed in the little bedroom and even thought the room is still a complete mess, it really made it look better:

The renters built the loft platform. The room actually has a cathedral ceiling too. Don't know when we'll get time to take it down (or put the doors on the wardrobe), but every little thing helps at this point.