From: JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.EDU (Jay Brandt)
Subject: RE Packrats/RE to Jilara
Organization: University of Oregon, Architecture
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 92 16:23:21 GMT

In a reply to "When Packrats move, Jilara said:

>Jilara smiles approvingly.  "3000 books?  My kind of people!
<Neat stuff about her library deleted for bandwidth>
>"But 500 square feet??  How can you live in that amount of
>space?  That would mostly only support the books, with very
>little furniture.  And in our case, we certainly wouldn't have
>room for the art magazine collection, the comics, and my
>collection of antique clothing, let all the rest of the
>hobbies!  My condolences on not having room for the furniture
>shop.  How do people live without such hobbies?"

<Ping!> 
<Jason reappears next to Jilara. He'a looking much more refreshed, and is
wearing clean clothes again, not at all like the walking dustmop he
resembled when he told his moving tale.>

     Well Jilara, judging from your comments, your family and mine have
quite a lot in common. The only reason we have room to even turn around in
500 square feet of apartment space is because a LOT of the books are in
storage. The part of the library that we knew we could stand to part with,
at least temporarily, was the first thing to be stored in my Mother-in-laws
garage. We didn't count the books then either, but the solid-packed (no air
to speak of) boxes of books in her garage made a neatly stacked pile 4 feet
wide by 5 feet high by six feet long! They are sitting on a heavy-duty 4
inch high raised platform that keeps them up off the concrete floor to
protect the books from damage. The _National Geographic_ magazine
collection alone, which is pretty much complete back to at least 1957, took
eight 12 in x 12 in by 10 in high boxes to pack. Then there was the
complete collection of _OMNI_ magazine, and a lot of paperbacks and
hardbacks, and a crate of comics that I couldn't bear to part with when I
had to sell off my comic book collection back in 1980 to meet college
expenses (sniff - I still miss some of them). Yet that was only about 1/3
of the library. Understand that we FILLED a 15 foot x 20 foot x eight foot
high garage -to the rafters- with stuff we had to store, for lack of room.

     We have bookshelves in almost all the rooms of the new apartment.
There are four full-height (to the ceiling) and two half-height cases in
the bedroom, one full-height and one 3/4 height cases in the living room,
and one half-height case in the Kitchen just for the cookbooks. Others are
stored in footlocker trunks or crates that are tucked into closets or under
the bed. The bed itself (queen-size) will be sitting on a platform of 12
fully-packed crates of books, SCA garb, cloth for sewing projects, and
out-of-season clothing. Put a decorative skirting around it, and you have a
"captains bed" with maximum storage beneath. (It's not that difficult to
get into, just lift the mattress and slide out the box you want). Oh yeah,
the camping gear's in the closets too.

     The move is actually going on at a good pace. Everything is in the
right towns now, with the exception of two or three boxes that went into
the wrong van-load. I can actually see 2/3 of my living room floor again,
and almost half of the kitchen. 

     How can a person, let alone a couple with two cats, live in such tight
quarters with so much stuff and so many interests. Well, forget about
seeing your walls. They are now bookshelves or storage systems. Pack things
you don't need right now, and keep out what you need access to. Use -every-
available space, even under the bed and the chairs (over half of our
seating has storage built into the base). and for gods sake don't lose your
sense of humor! If you are creative, you can do just about anything, just
about anywhere. Just you wait, I'll be building furniture again soon, if I
have to do it on the back steps!

     Well, I have three or more other things to post, and I need to
download the weekends message traffic, so I'll see you later. <Jason
touches the button on his PowerBook, and once again fades out of existance
with a soft> <Ping!>.

Newsgroups: alt.callahans