slow process home

Today I began the slow process of moving stuff home from the storage unit. Part of it was, I hadn't been out there in nearly 2 months and wanted to be sure everything was OK (I went AFTER going back to work and doing the necessary grading plus working some on SysBot stuff, because I thought "if vermin got in and destroyed stuff, or if it had flooded, or if someone actually broke in and stole stuff, I would then be too distracted to work*"

(*I had a bad experience in college with storing some books in a storage unit that flooded. The place's response was "eh, not our problem" and renters insurance didn't cover it. So I just wound up throwing out a lot of books, a few of which were important to me).

But no, everything was fine.

My precious!

mostly sockweight yarn, this was all in a tub but now I see I also had it in plastic zipper bags. Now I want to start a new project but I'm going to force myself to finish something else first.

My precious!

I had taken most of the stuffies off my sofa, in case they had to do window removal - so now I have Strawberry Dog and my Corviknight and also the sequinned fidget-toy unicorn back. (I also have another tub of stuffies in there but I think it must be one of the opaque ones, I couldn't quickly spot it. I know I happen to have a second corviknight and maybe I take one of those over and kind of hide it in my office; there have been a few days recently where being able to give a stuffed animal a quick hug would have helped)

My precious!

Two (of many) tubs of fabric. I know one of these have my "cats go to Paris" yardage in them - I also have "cats go to Venice" but that's for a "five-yard quilt" that one of the quilt shops up by my mom used to do. But: if I run short when I go to make the Venice quilt, there are some of the Paris fabrics that coordinate. (I want to do that quilt top soon). I do need to sort these and be kind of draconian in what I keep, so hopefully I can fit it all on whatever shelving solution I hit on. 

 I also decided to measure the wall space in the sewing room to see what kind of shelving units I could eventually buy for fabric. The longest part of the wall is 75", so not QUITE long enough for two of the widest units. The short space under the built in bookcase is  33", and the other section of the wall is 48". The shelving units I was considering are 47.5 inches wide. There are also 36" wide ones, I could fit two of those side by side and one on the other side of the built in bookcase. I will have to think on it more. 

So I could get two of the wide units and have wasted space, or figure out some other configuration, or, I don't know. The problem is getting stuff is HARD - we don't have a Container Store, the nearest IKEA is in Dallas, and so I'm stuck with what Lowe's has or maybe the Wal-mart or the Target. I may have to special order. What I want to do is eventually fill as much of that wall as I can with shelves that fit** because I want to stack my quilting fabric on there so it's VISIBLE and accessible. (The yarn, I don't know. I still want to try to repair the shelves in the walk-in closet; yarn is lighter than books or fabric so it could go there). I could also look at Target or Home Depot tomorrow, if I feel like taking the time, they might have some better choices. 

(**As I said: if I had unlimited money and unlimited tolerance for people tramping around in my house, I'd hire someone to build those bracket-and-board type shelves for me, but I don't and I'm not handy enough to consider doing it alone - I know they'd not come out level, and I don't feel up to asking one of the very few people who would be physically capable of helping me to help, because they are all busy themselves - the main person I would ask is finishing up their OWN home renovation and preparing to move and then sell TWO houses - one she had, one she and her now-deceased husband lived in, and she's moving to a house that apparently had been in her family years ago)

But for now: I have a couple boxes home, I have some of my stuff back. I can kind of sort the fabric and consider what if any of it I prefer to donate (perhaps bringing a box or two home at a time, and sorting it HERE, instead of sorting in the hot, dusty storage unit is preferable - I'd have to consolidate it all in a box ANYWAY to take it down to the Baptist church that would use it)

Also I may have the issue of having a LOT of plastic storage tubs that I bought (some of them at $15 a piece) and either having to dispose of them or store them. I don't want to pay a storage unit to store empty tubs, but if I get rid of them I'd rather get SOME of my investment back and sell them. I'll have to think on it. (The other option - clear out the "potting shed" behind my garage and stack them - they nest - and keep them in there with the idea that maybe some day I will need them, or I will have someone in my life I really care about who needs them).