Monday, June 16, 2008

Up The Down Staircase


Four months ago DH and I moved into our condo. We moved from a one-floor, 1,200 square foot, two-bedroom apartment to a three-floor, 2,000 square foot, two-bedroom condo. The bedrooms are on the top floor. Main floor is kitchen, dining area and living room. Basement is laundry and storage.

On moving weekend I knew my legs would start to ache from going up and down and up and down. I lasted two and one-half days before I could not walk without pain. I had to rest the third day so I could finish moving, cleaning and unpacking on the fourth day.

It didn't take me long to develop the habit of when I go up or down the stairs to stop for a moment and see if there is anything that needs to be taken up or down with me. There's my husband's hat that needs to be taken upstairs to the bedroom. I should take the stitchery project up to my studio. There's my water glass from last night, it needs to go down to the kitchen. The cloth napkins from dinner need to go down to the laundry.

I enjoy having three floors of space. I find it easier to keep the house clean and somewhat organized because I am always looking to put something where it belongs, especially if I'm going up or down the staircase. When we lived on one-floor it was a lot easier to say to myself, "That (whatever) can stay where it's at. I'll get to it later."

Do you have any tips for staying on top of stuff laying around the house?

3 comments:

Sandra :) said...

My tip is that the less you have, the less work you have to do to keep up with things! The older I get, the more I'm into minimizing and decluttering - it makes life a lot simpler. We moved from a 1200 square foot bungalow to a 2800 sq. foot 2 story house (plus basement) and now it takes forever to do the housework, and we now have stuff in every room, so we have a LOT OF STUFF!! I've totally changed my outlook in the last 14 years, and can't wait to downsize when the kids are ready to fly the nest!

~Bren~ said...

Paula!!! I love this blog. I had no idea...how did I miss it!

Melinda said...

I have bedrooms and sewing room on the top floor, living room, kitchen/laundry and dining room on the ground floor and my longarm quilting studio in the basement so I go up and down stairs a lot. I have a stair basket for the group/2nd floor and put things in it that need to be taken up or down. That helps a lot. I hang a grocery bag on the basement door handle to put things in that need to go to the garage or quilting studio or to the car (like my grocery bags).

Just think of the exercise!