Thursday Thirteen #68

All my posts since January 1st have been about the massive cleaning and organizing of our room. I was planning to do a series of 13 before and after pictures but I could see after preparing the 13 before pictures that it would take me several more hours to choose, prepare and comment on thirteen more pictures. So I am splitting this into two TT. Next week I will post the after pics. But if you just can't wait until next week, stop by on Sunday for my Sunday Serenity post for one or two teasers.

All of these pictures were taken the Friday evening before Christmas, the day I got my new digital camera.

Thirteen Pictures Taken Before Last Week's Room Re-do

1. I took this of the wall opposite while sitting at the head of the bed.
2. Still sitting at the head of the bed but turned directly to my left and aiming up. I still couldn't quite get that top shelf without laying down.
3. Now directly left. This was my desk on which the laptop usually set. I think that is Ed's knee int he bottom right corner and that he has the laptop on his lap. He couldn't fit his knees under that board so he would hold it on his lap or pull out that plastic drawer in front of him and set it on that. I occasionally did that latter myself when I needed that board to prop up a book I was referring to or copying from.

4. My desk with the laptop in place
5. A different angle of my desk. Taken from just inside the door of the room. Shortly after I left for Longview, that board that board did a teeter-totter and slid or toppled everything still atop of it onto the floor and bed while Ed was sleeping one night. Apparently I had taken too much of the weight off the left end of it with me.
6. A view under the board showing how three quarters of the green shelves were obstructed by my desk and bedside table. That box with a pic of an easel on it was the one I packed for my return trip from Longview when I thought I was taking the bus back and trying to get everything into two carry-ons and two large checked 'bags'. Only to find out at the last minute that Greyhound's rules had changed. I had purposely not unpacked my sewing from that box yet, trying to keep it safe. But making room for it in there was a challenge.
7. For this I had to stand on the bed. This is the pile of clothes and misc on top of that plastic drawer which is on top of the green bookcase that is blocking the closet. As you can see the pile reaches the level of the hanger rod inside the closet.
8. This is just to the right of that pile and down. This is the pilot case that served as our hamper. Ed also tended to pile his coats on top of it. That was as far away from my clothes we could keep his smoky coats and jackets.

Here you can also see the corner of that plastic drawer and see that it is in dire need of sorting. It was intended to be my desk drawer for keeping all things related to my writing but it long since devolved into a junk drawer. When we first got it, most of my writing paraphernalia would fit in it with room to spare.
9. Another view of that drawer atop the green shelf. Yes that is a q-tip and candy wrappers on the floor down there. Along with the power cord to my laptop. I discovered it had gotten unplugged shortly after taking this series of pics.

To retrieve something that fell off that pile atop this green shelf into the closet behind, I had to move the entire pile to the bed and sit on that green shelf. Once I fell in. Sorry, not pics or videos of that.

Those white boxed are from Ed's work boots. He goes through two pair per year and I hold onto the boxes because they make such good drawers. These three were holding office supplies, books and writing files. That one on top held everything related to my NaNo novel, Spring Fever.
10. This is between the foot of the bed and the entertainment center against the wall opposite the closet, so cat-a-corner to my desk. That was Ed's book shelf holding his programing manuals in the back row (unseen) and his library books in front.
11. This is propped up by the corner of the entertainment center and the box in the picture above. This is an example of the jerry-rigging I've always done to create storage space and shelving out of whatever is handy.
12. This is of the top of the left corner of the entertainment center. That was the fan that saw us through the summer because the ceiling fan stopped working last spring. The bucket behind it held Ed's HABA (Health and Beauty Aids) in a most handy place right by the door so he could reach in and grab on his way to the shower. The cold meds and mouthwash belonged in the joint HABA bag on the shelf below but seldom seemed to find their way back there. This frustrated me as it blocked access to the Great Books set which I frequently need to reference.

13. This is of the bottom shelves of the entertainment center. This shamed me and frustrated me even more than the blocked closet. This stuff got shoved onto these shelves last June during the first attempt to organize the room. It was supposed to be temporary but the stuff never got sorted and assigned new homes appropriate to their use. So they sat there gathering dust from the litter box. It was hard to get at things which made it hard to put them away also.



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