Storage Envy

A few of my children live in Scandinavia. Their houses are all easy to clean, well-organised and very, very practical. I can stay with each or any of them for several days and not witness any housework going on, and yet - the houses never seem to get dirty. Well, not my  kind of dirty. This may because, to a man, they all take their shoes off when coming in from outside; a practice I have tried to instigate back in the UK, but have, on the whole, been met with a surprised expression of innocence, 'but they're not dirty'.

Our houses just aren't made the same. Our houses are much more difficult to clean. We don't have as many cupboards to store stuff in. And we don't usually have separate laundry rooms. None of my kids who live abroad have a washing machine in their kitchen. None.

And here we come to the whole point of this post. That photo at the top. Know what it is? Well, yes, shelves with storage containers wall to wall. But here's the thing: There is a special room in the basement of my son's house [a basement so vast, I may add, that it has its own log burner, sauna, washing machine room, drying room and three storage rooms - but I digress] and in this room he has constructed these shelves and lined them with containers to, and I quote,  'Finally going to sort out all the bedding etc'. End quote.

I have serious storage envy. I want a room lined wall to wall with shelves with containers on to sort my bedding. I love sorting. Then everything would be at my fingertips when an unexpected guest turns up.

You want a pillow, or would you prefer two? Certainly they are in this box. A nice fresh-unstained-new quilt would then be extracted from another box. Guest quilt covers would be just above - and oh yes - the pillow cases would be in the box right above the pillows. Obviously. Making up a guest bed would be sheer pleasure. ATM, I am not sure where the nice clean new quilts that I bought especially for guests are.  They could be in youngest daughters cupboards, but I think youngest son probably nicked one and it's on his bed. Ditto new pillows.

And my sheets and covers cupboard? It's in the children's bathroom so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that it is just a muddle, where people keep opening out folded sheets to see if they are singles or doubles. And they never are the ones that are wanted, and they all seem to be fitted sheets which are such a pain to re-fold that the kids usually just roll them in a ball and throw them back in.

So, don't come looking in my cupboards is all I can say. Not till I get a storage system like my son has. But I would probably have to move to Norway to aspire to that...