Post Holiday Storage - Ugh
I like the holiday season. It looks very festive with all the Christmas lights and wreaths on all the houses. I put mine up this year, at the encouragement of my wife. I installed cup hanger hooks many years ago for hanging lights on the fascia of the house. It makes it easy to hang the string of lights, and even easier to take them down. I jury-rigged some duct tape at the end of an extension pole so the tape forms a little crook. Now all I have to do is use the pole to lift the lights off the hooks and lower the string of lights one hook at a time. And I don't have to climb any ladders to take them down. I do live in a single story house, so I can get away with lowering everything from the ground.
The major problem is always storing the decorations. We live in a retirement community where the people are intended to play golf and drive their golf carts. People are assumed to have rid themselves of all worldly possessions except for golf clubs before they move here. There was no intention to allow people to store anything in the house. Yes we have closets for clothes, but we have no basements, and the only area for storage of large things like boxes is in a crawl space over the garage. Crawl means very little clearance. No standing up. Sitting or hands and knees only. And the only way to reach some of the area is to crawl over and then under the air conditioning tubes that carry the hot/cold fluid from the external heat exchangers to the blower units. The first tube runs parallel to the crawl space floor around 6 inches off the floor. So I crawl over that one. The next air conditioning tube was hung around 14 inches over the floor, so I have to lie on my belly and scoot under that (assuming I have already lifted the boxes over the tube and placed them to the side).
Anyway, it is a pain. I have to use a 15 foot step ladder to get up into the crawl apace. So all boxes are carried up one at a time on the ladder. I had to rig up a pulley on one of the rafters years ago so I could haul up book boxes. So I use the pulley now for heavy stuff.
Well, all is stored now for another year. I will wait until next holiday season to see if I hang lights again.
The major problem is always storing the decorations. We live in a retirement community where the people are intended to play golf and drive their golf carts. People are assumed to have rid themselves of all worldly possessions except for golf clubs before they move here. There was no intention to allow people to store anything in the house. Yes we have closets for clothes, but we have no basements, and the only area for storage of large things like boxes is in a crawl space over the garage. Crawl means very little clearance. No standing up. Sitting or hands and knees only. And the only way to reach some of the area is to crawl over and then under the air conditioning tubes that carry the hot/cold fluid from the external heat exchangers to the blower units. The first tube runs parallel to the crawl space floor around 6 inches off the floor. So I crawl over that one. The next air conditioning tube was hung around 14 inches over the floor, so I have to lie on my belly and scoot under that (assuming I have already lifted the boxes over the tube and placed them to the side).
Anyway, it is a pain. I have to use a 15 foot step ladder to get up into the crawl apace. So all boxes are carried up one at a time on the ladder. I had to rig up a pulley on one of the rafters years ago so I could haul up book boxes. So I use the pulley now for heavy stuff.
Well, all is stored now for another year. I will wait until next holiday season to see if I hang lights again.
posted by sunlaker @ 3:31 PM
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