Today's topic for Mundane Monday is... storage! Specifically storage in containers and labelling.
I spent a bit of time yesterday carrying Christmas decor upstairs in a laundry basket to then put things away in a variety of large plastic bins. Many of them are Rubbermaid brand bins, but not all (nope, not getting any money from Rubbermaid for naming the company). When we added onto the house many years ago, a small storage room was created with shelving (built by husband out of plywood, etc.) deep and high enough to house many, many plastic bins. This store room is known as "the Rubbermaid room".
I had a mishmash of Christmas things in the laundry basket: Santas, nutcracker figures, snowmen, a string of lights that look like the Leg Lamp from the movie (You'll know what I mean if you know that movie!)... I dragged out some of the big bins from the Rubbermaid room in order to put things away properly. I had to laugh at my labelling system. Over the years I had used a black Sharpie marker (permanent marker brand) to label what was inside, but obviously I've switched things up over the years as some labels were crossed out and new ones added. Large Santas, Snow man collection, Village 1 of 3, Tree Ornaments... I think some years I was very organized and other years I was rushed and just tossed things where they fit. Not all the labels are accurate, even now.
I am a labeler because organization and being able to find things quickly has always been necessary in my career as a teacher. My binders were always labelled on the spine, my files were organized in a four drawer file cabinet according to subject areas, my boxes (and boxes, and boxes, and boxes, like every other elementary school teacher out there) were always labelled, but sometimes not always easy to get to as space was always lacking.
When I was little, there were no such things as the big plastic storage containers, or clear ones (which are even better!) that exist in abundance today. Items were stored in cardboard boxes. A good solid cardboard box was a coveted thing. Some boxes ended up being ragged and floppy depending on how frequently items were retrieved or stored from that same box. The box that held the Hallowe'en costumes was one such box. I have a cousin who tells the story of how she came to our house and saw a box in a hallway cupboard where we kept toys and such and the box was labeled "Stuff". She still laughs about that today!
They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. I think the way to a woman's heart is through storage. Do tell - do you have colour coordinated storage containers, do you write on them with marker or gasp!!! do you have a label maker? Do you see a good cardboard box and think, "I need to keep that", or are you at the other end of the spectrum? Is your method of storage just a free for all and hope for the best? Perhaps you have cleared your life of extra "stuff" (ha ha, like whatever was in that box in the hall) and you have no need for storage. Or has your accumulation of worldly goods caused you to rent a storage container somewhere else?
I look forward to hearing your comments, as always, on today's mundane Monday!
