Box Fresh

At some point, everyone with a clutter problem turns to some kind of "storage solution". Apparently even a plain old carboard box is not just a box, when it's sold for a lot of money to people whose houses are full of crap, it's a "storage solution".

The solution pictured above is the R-Kive woodgrain cardboard storage box. It is, in my opinion, the Rolls Royce of such storage boxes. It's very sturdy, it doesn't come to bits when it's full, and it's a nice size. 40cm x 33cm x 26cm, in fact, which my maths tells me gives a storage capacity of.. erm.. (calculator..) 0.034 cubic metres. It doesn't sound so much when you put it like that, (I'm sure I've worked it out wrong) but even so, it's a decent size. You can fit about 60 VHS tapes inside one.

I know this because I have many of these boxes. OK, admittedly, I only have 5 of the luxury woodgrain ones, which I do love ever so much, but during my tidying today I counted and verified that I have another 40 of the only slightly less excellent R-Kive non-woodgrain plain cardboard boxes of the same size. This means that I must have.. erm... (calculator) at least 1.53 cubic metres of clutter stored therein. It doesn't sound so much when you put it like that.

Of course not all of my clutter is in these boxes, if they were then things would be a whole lot tidier. But the standard sized box is my weapon of choice when it comes to - if not 'de-cluttering' - at least 'tidying' slightly. I have several nooks and crannies around the place where collections of 2 or more of these boxes gather.

I only have 45 of these boxes, and I'm determined not to buy any more, so every so often when I run out of space, I try to condense the contents of a few boxes into less boxes, so that I have an empty box again. It gets harder as time goes on. Right now I'm down to about two 'free' boxes, although one is full of bubble wrap and the other is full of stuff which I'll need to turf out first of all.

There is still much to do, but today has definitely been a tidy Saturday. Already gone from my bedroom are many useless elastic bands, some dried-up pens, a couple of VHS video cases, (I can't throw these all away at once, there is nothing wrong with them, but I can manage one at a time) a desk lamp which never really worked quite right but has now shown weakness by allowing the bulb inside to go, several large cardboard boxes of non-regulation size, and a whole tea chest which has now been emptied.

The tea chest is important because it will be the final one from my previous house moves 9 and 13 years ago, respectively. Its disappearance will therefore doubtless be of some significance in a way I can't quite grasp just now. Most importantly, the space it occupied has now been occupied by three storage boxes moved from elsewhere, resulting in a greater appearance of tidiness. There is still room for another four storage boxes to go on top, too, so I might take that opportunity to reduce the clutter in the hallway, currently home to 15 storage boxes, but soon perhaps only 11.

I swear I'm going to get my life back in some kind of order before the year is out. It's been too long. And I suspect that people are getting quite tired of listening to me talking about my never-ending tidy-up now. :-)