I was pretty much of a useless article Tuesday, so I was determined to amount to something Wednesday. I did get a small amount of sleep last night, so was feeling a bit better.
I’d emptied the cedar closet into my room over a week ago, in hopes it would spur me to doing the clothes change over. But it came down to shove to get me moving.
Having a more or less climate controlled cedar closet for storing clothing and delicate items was a must when we built this first addition. The closet measures 8’ wide x 9’ long. The walls are paneled in cedar, the shelves are cedar, the floor leftover linoleum from the bathroom, and a sheetrock ceiling. There’s a clothes pole that runs the length on the right side and shelving to half way down on the left and shelving running across the back to the garment bags. There’s also a shelf above the garment bags.
The closet was placed on the northwest corner of the house as that would keep the steadiest temperature. I believe we put vapor barrier on the walls too, to keep the humidity stable. It stays cool in there all summer.
I would collect clothing for my son of all sizes from friends and tag sales, and store it in labeled bags by age. Twice a year we’d drag out the next age and my son would try things on for fit. Slowly over the years, the closet emptied out. Now it holds our clothes and linens and lots of delicate stuff.
I change over to summer clothes in early May, with a few warmer clothes to get us through until the next change in October. It’s been colder this year, earlier, and we needed warmer clothes.
Favorite coat hanging on left in door way, new coat on right on hooks
I still buy nice clothing at tag sales and store it. My winter coat’s lining finally gave out and I was told it would cost about $150 to replace it. I can’t do it myself. I am bummed out, I’ve had the coat for 15 years and really love it. The outside is fine, it’s just the lining. But several years ago I’d picked up a really nice coat to replace my favorite when it went. So I got that out this morning.
We each have 3 pairs of boots: Sorels for the barn, Sorels for good, and rubber boots. Oh, and my husband was given a pair of insulated Muck boots.
This coat rack has the barn coats and heavy coveralls. We each have 3 coats: 1 for good, 1 for every day, and one for the barn. Those are the heavy coats. We also have lots of light weight jackets and sweatshirts.
The gloves and mittens are in the chests, along with Yaxtrax, scarves and hats.
I stockpile T shirts, underwear, socks, and pants too. We go through the clothes and any that have worn out are sent to the “rag bag” to be re-used in multiple ways. Then I replace the items from my stock, making note of any that are getting low.
Once everything is changed over, I repack the bags and label them and put the whole mess back in the closet. Done until May 2020….
Another project I wanted to get done was changing the main entryway back to the back door. I’d moved all the protective rugs into the living room in front of the doors when the cellar hole was dug. I was attempting to protect the floors from all the dirt being tracked in.
I’d set up a table to hold things brought into the house and a place for all the shoes and boots. I had room to do this because the recliner had ceased to recline and gone to the dumpster.
So today I vacuumed, and vacuumed, and vacuumed the rugs and scrubbed floors and put everything back into the kitchen by the back door. I moved the rocker over into the recliner’s area and a plant too. It looks much nicer now, without all the shoes and boots and dirt…
Thursday my helper and I clean the butchershop and Friday is Freezer Camp for the old layers. The young layers will be tossed into the layer pen and we will have to catch each one Friday night and stuff her through the chicken door into the coop. After 2 – 3 days of this, they figure it out and go to bed by themselves.
Saturday and Sunday I wash almost all the windows in the house (there are 30 of them, mostly double hung with storm windows) with my window lady. She moves the stuff in front of each window, takes them out and brings them to me. I sit on the floor and wash window after window. She puts them back in, and cleans up around the immediate area of each one.
I can’t wait until Sunday night, when all this is done!