Good Infrastructure

Good infrastructure solves all kinds of problems.
If you can’t find your stuff, you need better storage (and possibly less stuff). If you are always forgetting things, you need a routine or a ritual or a list or all three (I generally need all three these days). If the sheep are always getting out, you need better fences (I really need better fences – but hey, I did put a gate up onto proper hinges today, and that was an improvement).
Our front entrance is always in chaos. The window by the front door still had the installation stickers on it … umm … five years after it was put in. Clearly window washing has never been high on our list of priorities. Ahem.
Anyway, I found myself in a bit of a cleaning and tidying mood a few days ago, so I vacuumed the rug where the dog sleeps, swept the floors, squeaked the stickers off the window, and put together a couple of pegboard frames. I saw this idea somewhere online and thought, you know, that would work perfectly for so many things!
The smaller frame is up in the fibre room now. It will hold my supported spindles (and a few other random things, like some necklaces I found hanging on a nail for some reason, a stray key, and a popsicle stick Christmas ornament one of the kids made).

The larger one is by the main door and has hooks for shopping bags, my favourite garden tool, hats, and the assortment of keys that aren’t used all the time (our regular keys are on a special key hook that fits into the light switch cover by the front door) – easy to grab on the way out the door and, having used the same thing for about fifteen years now, it’s a deeply ingrained habit to hang them there on the way in.

The pegboard was cheap – maybe four or five dollars for a piece big enough to do both frames with some left over. I painted it with  bit of white glossy paint from the basement so it would look nicer than the plain brown pressboard original. I found an assortment of pegboard hardware for about eight dollars and the frames were here already – one had broken glass, and the other just wasn’t being used for anything. The frames are thick enough to hold the pegboard out from the wall, so there’s no trouble getting the hooks in and out. If I change my mind about what needs to go where, it’s a simple thing to just pull the pegs out and reposition them. Also takes advantage of wall space – floor and shelving space is at a bit of a premium, so hanging things on the wall makes good sense.
Flexible, cheap, useful. Yep, my kind of project.