R. Hunter's Profile

My family rented a storage unit for several years when we lived in Montana. We used it for things like Dad's larger tools, seasonal items (Mom worked at a holiday lighting company, so we had lots of decorations), hobby supplies that they didn't have the time/energy/space for back then, and some heirloom items that just wouldn't be safe in a house with rambunctious dogs, cats, and a kid. We never had any major problems that I can recall with our unit (no climate control, and checked on every few months). I think we had one mini-flood after a big storm where water seeped in, but we'd taken precautions so nothing was ruined.

Here are my tips: Get everything that can be water-damaged off the floor. Plastic bins are your friend, even if they don't stack as neatly as cardboard boxes. If you can't go entirely plastic, make a bottom layer with the bins and stack your cardboard on top. For furniture or tools, put some blocks or 2x4s or similar under them to get them off the ground. If you're worried about roof leaks or roof-damaging storms, throw a couple of tarps over the top of your things. If bugs are an issue in your area, consider putting mothballs (I know, they stink) or other bug-repellants in your boxes. If you live in extreme heat or cold areas, be careful with pressurized cans and liquid-filled items - either isolate them in their own (waterproof) box, or if they're replaceable get rid of them and remove the risk entirely. Put irreplaceable and bug-damageable items - photos come to mind - in good zip-lock bags before boxing. And make sure you put heavy items down low and lighter items on top, unless the lighter items are in very sturdy boxes.

I dare anyone who has cats (or kids or dogs or...) who like to "help" to get any of these done in the actual 20minutes. I think it takes me 10 minutes alone to pick up the cat toys when I want to vacuum! As for any surface cleaning, as soon as I pick up anything I guarantee there will be a bright little face trying to see what I'm doing, if the toy (real or imagined) will be thrown, and if it's not thrown can we play twenty-claws-keepaway? I do work with the "little bit at a time" method, but I don't think I've ever managed to focus the way lists like these suggest.

Everyone here has been very ambitious, in terms of my family! For my entire life, the tree, ornaments, and most of the lights went up on Christmas Eve - because my working parents just never got to it until then. Then, because it took so much work and was so pretty, we left the decorations up until Easter. It worked out pretty well, since my mom would never remember where she'd hidden all the presents she'd bought throughout the year, and all the rest of the family lived across the country, so shipments of presents would arrive intermittently. Christmas lasted a lot longer that way, hee hee.

I love flowers, but I hate buying cut flowers because I know they're going to die all too soon. I almost always opt for potted plants instead. At any rate, I don't have any room for more pots right now, so I think I'll tweak this assignment a bit. Dust off a vase, fill it with pretty marbles, arrange it with a pre-existing plant and candle or two, and spend the twenty minutes practicing my much-neglected clarinet.

Adjustable shelves. My wonderfully large closet has bolted-down weirdly-sized and -spaced shelving already installed, with only a small space left for hanging garments, and the bar is so low that my dresses drag on the floor (much to my cats' delight). My guess is that a previous tenant built the system for what he/she was specifically storing at the time. I want to rip it all out and replace with an adjustable shelving system, like Elfa, so the setup can be modified as usage needs change. Does anyone have experience with a good system?