I have been cleaning out my closet since 9:30 this morning. I don't like this job much, but it really needed done. I am almost finished, now I am sorting out and folding a mountain of fabric. I keep all my sewing supplies on shelves inside my walk-in closet. It is truly humbling to see how much "stuff" I have. I keep telling myself not to buy anything, even at yard sales, and not to take anything for free from people either!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), November 29, 2001

Answers

Misery loves company.....I'm cleaning and sorting also. Oh joy.

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), November 29, 2001.

Isn't that the truth, Melissa . . . you never know how much you have until you either have to 1) move it, 2) organize it, or 3) clean it.

But what I DO enjoy about this experience is "oh wow, I forgot I even had this . . ." It is almost as fun as Christmas (now now don't get carried away here) . . .

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), November 29, 2001.

I enjoy cleaning closet, cabinet and drawers as long as their not too dusty. We haven't had a real closet in over 8 years. Old farm houses don't have them much. Gary had the builders put in a 10 x 4 foot one, it's not finished yet, but the rail's in.

-- Cindy (S.E.IN) (atilrthehony@countrylife.net), November 29, 2001.

"But what I DO enjoy about this experience is "oh wow, I forgot I even had this . . ." " -- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), November 29, 2001.

Yes, j.r., that's always our downfall in organizing efforts though. Especially if we are working with books. "Oh, wow, forgot we had this book, it was so good"... then read, read, read instead of what we are suppose to be doing. LOL!

-- Terry - NW Ohio (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), November 29, 2001.

Cindy--The curse of old farmhouses,NO CLOSETS! I fantasize about having closets. Our house in Toledo had one in every room. And now I have none. Upstairs we have one extra bedroom that we are going to divide into one big closet and a sewing room for me. Then I'll have my very own closet to clean!

-- vicki in NW OH (thga76@aol.com), November 29, 2001.

It must be the sort of day for cleaning! I've been moving all the fabric and quilting stuff out of the loft, into another room. Some of it is so ugly or torn I don't know why I ever saved it. Maybe as stuffing?

-- Rebekah (nomail@thanx.net), November 29, 2001.

vicki, we did the same thing, we turned an upstairs room into a closet, effectionately known as the 'closet room' how original.

-- Cindy (S.E.IN) (atilrthehony@countrylife.net), November 30, 2001.

Vicki & Cindy - We too did the same thing! The bedroom is so small, I would never put one of my kids in it (nor would they fit with all the books, toys and furniture, not to mention portable closets!) but it's just the right size for a closet. However, mine tends to be the catch-all for everything else too!

-- Lisa in WI (lehmanNOSPAM@vbe.com), November 30, 2001.

No closets in this old place either! Didn't the people in the old days wear clothing??

-- Ardie/WI (ardiexxxxx@hotmail.com), November 30, 2001.

I noticed that a lot of you ladies have mentioned that you have huge stashes of fabric. Maybe you should have a fabric exchange.

-- Sherri C (CeltiaSkye@aol.com), November 30, 2001.

Ardie,

This house has five bedrooms and two bedrooms have closets. One is a small walk-in and the other a deep closet under the stairwell. Inside the closets were pegs on the walls all the way around, no rods. I'm wondering what they actually used the closets for because the clothes were hung on the pegs, so what went in there to use up the rest of the space? Interesting.

-- Terry - NW Ohio (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), November 30, 2001.

I heard on a house tour once that any room with a door was taxed as an extra room, so even closets with a door counted. That is one reason they didn't put many closets in. This particular house had a rich owner and he put closets in every room, because he was so rich he didn't care if they taxed him or not!!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), November 30, 2001.

My closet in my bedroom is underneath the stairwell, which my bedroom backs up to. the ceilings are VERY LOW, but it goes far back and there is one rail in the front of the closet. I have a few clothes hanging on the rail, but the space is narrow. Behind the rail lies a mess I would love to get rid of and replace with more rails and other closet items. Does anyone have any ideas for laying out the close

-- Caitlyn (sweetangelgal133@yahoo.com), December 27, 2001.

At Lowes and other places they have these really neat organizing systems. They aren't much money, but if you did not want to buy one you could just look at them to get ideas. We just built the shelves and things ourselves from lumber and OSB (like plywood).

-- Melissa (me@home.net), December 27, 2001.

People in the old days didn't have much clothing, so a lot of them used pegs, sometimes covered with a sheet or other curtain. People who had more clothes than that usually had a wardrobe, a piece of furniture they took with them when they moved. They also used chests, both "chests of drawers" and small cedar chests.

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), December 29, 2001.