Old New England farmhouses lack closets. This house has two. One of them is downstairs, and is long and narrow and never worked well for anything over the years, so a while back I decided to turn it into a Christmas closet, exclusively. We have never changed anything in it over the twenty-six years we've lived here, so there is still horsehair and lime in the plaster, and I'm sure, much lead in the paint. But it is perfect for the Christmas things. It holds all the boxes and bags of decorations and movies and books, and isn't opened for eleven months of the year. A great plus is that it opens right into the living room where the tree goes, so we don't have to lug heavy, sometimes fragile treasures around. How I love it.
Excellent idea!!! The Christmas closet!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd now I see you have a great picture in your Header. And the picture fills the Header. And! Your blog name is in there too!!
OK, Girl Friend! Share! I can't do anything like that! And I am gettin' really upset now. -pout- -moan- -whimper- -pout- -stamps foot at blogger-
Phulllllleeeeeeeeeeeeze tell me how you did it! I have battered my brains out, trying. And gals have said that I have to go into my template and center my pic, with my name in there too. But I have been into my template, as far as I can go. I can NOT mess with the HTML and that stufffff! I have to do it, with the simple and ordinary way that blogger tells me to do it.
Help! Please and thank you.
Vee got hers perfect too, a few days agon. But her dad had a stroke on Christmas Eve day and I couldn't ask her. And now I see that you have *Done The Deed* too! Yaaaaaa... I feel help is on the way. :-)))
Mari-Nanci
I wish you and your family a very Happy New Year. and lots of gifts from above. Love, Mary
ReplyDeleteHey I have two closets too! One is shaped like this under our stairs and also opens into our living/dining room. Our is lined with narrow shelves as I need storage for kitchen items. Our other closet is upstair and much larger but still not big enough. It has the heating system in it also which takes up lots of space. We have no attic and an uninsulated storage shed built onto the house. The previous owners bricked up around the door to it from the house and made it into a closet but we cannot put certain things in it as there is no insulation. Anything I put in the shed can go musty and moldy on me. I am trying to get Jos to have it insulated but it costs an arm and a leg. :(
ReplyDeleteI used to always have the tradition of taking down my tree on New Year's Day to start the year clean but Jos has a fit that I take the tree down. He wants it up even longer than January 6th. I am busy now taking other decorations down and will soon put out my snowmen for January.
~~ Heidi ~~
That is the best Christmas closet ever!!!!! Love it!!!!
ReplyDeletep.s. I just put up my best books list if you want to take a peek!!
This made me chuckle, Nan because I thought at first you were saying your toilet wasn't working properly and so you used it to store your decorations! Then I realised a 'closet' is a what we call a 'cupboard' - language is so funny sometimes. Anyway you've just reminded me that we've got to take our decorations down today before we go to my sister's. Our storage space is in the loft, not has handy as your closet!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you and your family, Margaret
Our old texas house has three tiny closets, one in each bedroom. They are all tiny tiny and built in as after-thoughts. In Texas in the old days they taxed houses by the amount of rooms and closets were considered a room.
ReplyDeleteThe house I grew up in, in Massachusetts had huge closets and
the one off the dining room was our Christmas closet after I gave it up as a dolls bedroom !
Wow, only two closets!! I guess I should feel fortunate for the small ones I do have. I love your idea for the Christmas closet. The idea of not having to drag everything up from the basement is very appealing. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteOur victorian home that we sold had similar awkward closets, and just as you, we turned one into the "Christmas Closet". It made visiting it such fun, since I knew all of my favorite holiday things awaited behind its door.
ReplyDeleteWe have 4 closets in this old house. One little one in each bedroom and one little one at the foot of the stairs by the living room. However, I consider the basement one HUGE closet. Either that or a large Butler's Pantry. :)
ReplyDeleteI do envy your Christmas closet. Just this year my Dearly Beloved said we need to find a way to store our "stuff" without lugging it up and down the dangerous pull-down steps that go to the attic.
ReplyDeleteI have just such a closet, too! Our house was built in 1873 and we have 3 closets-later additions-and lots of wardrobes. I started putting Chritmas stuff in the one behind the bookcase a couple of years ago. To my surprise this year a recent rain had also occurred in the same closet. A tree skirt and couple of sets of lights were soaked! Aren't old houses fun! ;D
ReplyDeleteHow I enjoyed reading about all your own closets and the trials of an old house. :<) Thanks to each of you for taking the time to write.
ReplyDelete