Changing Rooms: the household edition

Back when I had a TV, I enjoyed watching Changing Rooms, a British home redecorating show in which neighbours or friends would each take responsibility (with a designer, of course) for redoing a room in the other family’s  house. It could be quite hilarious, and sometimes very touching. I think one of my favourite episodes involved a dining room makeover for a deaf couple. They custom built a table that had a light built right into the middle of it, so the whole middle of the table was this glowing circle: the idea was to better light the faces of the other diners, to make it easier for the hosts to read lips when they had guests over who did not sign. Very neat.

Anyway, not quite as cool as all that but we have had our own mini version of Changing Rooms here this past weekend. The Boy swapped his old room (the loft of the South Wing) for the room that was originally my bedroom and has most recently been the Fibre Room / place to stash all manner of things. This was something of a sacrifice on his part, as the new room is smaller by about 1/3, but it does have a door and is quieter than the loft. He has had one night in there so far and says it is just fine (though he needs heavier drapes, as the windows are a bit chilly this time of year, even with bubble wrap on them).

The move was a huge mess. I can’t believe how much was stuffed into that room … and how much of it was junk! Several bags have gone out to the pile waiting to go to the dump, and there are about four boxes of things to deposit at the Take it or Leave It centre at the dump (where you can leave things others might be able to use, and take anything you want, free). Four more boxes have fabric and notions (already claimed by a friend whose church is making gift bags for a charity out of fabric bits), and a few other treasures that will be rehomed in short order.

Then, of course, there’s the fibre. There’s the contents of the shop, which is now slightly more accessible than it was before, but there’s also my personal stash, which is clearly oversized. However, with everything spread out now, it’s easier to see what I have and hopefully easier to get to it and work on it. I see a few things that can be gotten through in fairly short order (carding I need to finish for someone else, for example), and then hopefully I can start plowing through the stash. I am borrowing a friend’s rigid heddle loom, and hope to do some weaving-as-stashbusting! Once I have a bit more room, I can bring the big upright loom up from the basement, too, and be truly all in one place.

The living room has benefitted from the changes too, as The Boy’s big recliner came downstairs and my ancient but comfortable gold fuzzy tub chair has gone up, and all my wheels except the Great Wheel are upstairs now too. The buckets of works in progress and bits of stash are all upstairs now as well, and I have just the project I’m working on (more Christmas knitting) with me.

Of course, I am tired after two days of non stop hauling and sorting and packing and burning and dumping. Last night I couldn’t get to sleep (despite being tired) … too much energy expended gets me wound up too tight and even with an extra dose of tincture and two different types of audio to put me under, it took two hours to get back to sleep when I woke at 3 am.

Tonight should be better though, as the ‘to do list’ in my brain is much, much shorter!

What a relief. What an incentive not to accumulate that much stuff ever again!