Episode 16: (How Easily Can You) Put Your Hand On It?

What you have is up to you. But do you know where all of it is, and can you put your hand on it quickly when you need to? Everything needs a home, but what and where that home is can greatly help or hinder your day to day life. A quick reminder of the basics of storage.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to another in the series: Make Life Better by Design with me, Kevin Drayton, uh, longtime architect, uh, design fan. But I have to say that after the weekend, I've just had, which happens, I don't know, every so often where I've had'designer' this and'designer' that thrown at me, and most of it bears no relation to what I think of as design. It's just overpriced crap. That people with far more money than sense seem to think is going to improve their lives. Well, it's not my idea of what design is about, and as I say, I get this sort of reaction, oh, probably, uh, two or three times a month when I read something or I see something and I think, you know, putting together a podcast, a broadcast, which has'design' in the title is a real double-edged sword. It's gonna get you as much trouble as listeners. Anyway, I've had a quick rant. Um, the other thing is that I'm now, this will be the 16th podcast. Um, and boy am I learning a lot as I go along. One of the things is that it's a podcast, so although I am actually recording this on video as well, it's not at the moment my intention to use it. Therefore, if I hold some notes or a script in my hand, uh, to help me with this thing, it's not gonna matter to anyone'cause they ain't gonna see it and they're not gonna think, oh, what's he keep looking down at? So I'm gonna get on with it, stop moaning and start. And today, one area of life where I think a little bit of thought and application can make life better is da da fanfare: storage. Now, at this point, I am not gonna say, oh, I think you should go minimalist. The less you have to store, the better. That's not what this series is about. If you want 35 pairs of shoes, that's entirely your business. I'm much more concerned about where you're gonna store it. So it's how and where. And I think the how and the where of storage can dramatic, dramatically- listen to me- dramatically affect, dramatically affect your quality of life. Thoughtless or purely accidental storage can make life a pain without you necessarily realizing what's putting you in a bad mood. The key to storing stuff, um, is often cited as a place for everything and everything in its place. Fair enough. But if you add stored in the most appropriate way, and where most convenient, then we are moving beyond merely, neat and tidy towards making life better. Okay, so, oh, that's interesting. I'm using this script and it's all over the place. Anyway, here we go. I reckon storage can be split into open and closed. Now open means things left on display, standing on tables, shelves, worktops, or, or even on the floor. And by closed, I mean in cupboards, in drawers, or outta sight in a separate room; under the bed, whatever. Both open and closed storage can have subdivisions such as boxes, baskets, jars, and fetish containers of all descriptions. It's all too easy to get seduced into buying containers first, then deciding what you'll put in them, and then finally where they're gonna live. Cart before horse of the very first order. The nature and characteristics of things tell you the preferable way or ways to store them. Uh, let's take a simple example. Uh, cutlery the two most common methods being horizontally in a drawer, closed storage or standing upright in containers. Now the latter can be open standing on a shelf or work top or closed if you keep the containers in a cupboard. It's not rocket science, but it's not always given the thought it might be. Where stuff is stored is often determined by, uh, habit and, and family traditions rather than what should be the principal consideration of convenience. Where's the best place to put the...?, Is....the best place to keep my,......? Sometimes we need to accept that there is not one best place to store something, which is why I have several pairs of glasses in different places around the house. I also have a pair in the car and a pair that in theory stay in my briefcase. Well, when, at home the briefcase itself becomes a place of storage as well as of course, needing to be stored and so on and so on. I'll give you a couple of simple examples of how habit can fight convenience. In many households, the majority of laundry is created in bedrooms and bathrooms. And many households, the washing machine and tumble dryer live in the kitchen or utility room, some distance from bedroom and bathroom. Second example, the majority of kitchen cabinets are a standard depth front to back of around about 600 millimeters, two feet. Now that's great for some storage and it's absolutely hopeless for others. But it's become acceptable, uh, to many people that, that they have a fitted kitchen. They get a fitted kitchen. Then having got it, they work out what can be kept where in it. Even if it means having to fight through three ranks of assorted jars to see if there's any strawberry jam left. Now all this may fall within the compass of flipping obvious to many people, but even the most logical and organized of minds can fall prey to storage blindness on occasion. Why otherwise are shouts of: do you know where...? and have you seen my....? and can you remember where we....? heard so frequently? In my very own home. Okay. At this juncture, I wish to put forward a word for a storage solution I think is frequently overlooked. The humble hook. Hook storage has two immediate benefits, frees up floor space. And it brings things closer to eye level. What's not to like? Probably the best known advocates of hook storage are the Shaker settlements in America. The Shakers lined walls probably still do. I'm not that friendly with any of them to find out, but they, they lined walls with peg rails and hung all sorts of things, clothes, bags, utensils, even chairs from them, kept floors nice and clear and clean, and everything was visible at a glance. In homes, in residential settings, the tendency to put cart before horse is particularly prevalent. I remember a conversation, uh, with a friend who was thinking of commissioning a new house. Rare thing to do. Um, terrific if you have the opportunity. Now, when I asked him what accommodation he was looking for, he reeled off a list of rooms, beginning with an entrance hall and then kitchen, sitting room, blah, blah, blah. When I asked him how he intended to use the hallway that he'd requested. He obviously thought I was just being facetious, but once we dug a little deeper and considered where say all his golfing paraphernalia would live and whether he minded visitors, seeing his abandoned keys, mail and dog walking essentials on what he automatically assumed he would have a hall table- oh, and this is without forgetting all the fallout from his passion for motorcycling- he began to think differently about the hall and how it would be used and what therefore needed to be like. The word accommodation should really be a clue for us when it comes to storage. I think that with homes it shouldn't be a matter of how do we accommodate ourselves to them, but how can, should or will they accommodate us and our possessions and do so conveniently, logically, and generally making our lives better. Questioning assumptions can be a good strategy, whatever we're dealing with. Now, I hope that this has been useful, or at the very least, thought provoking. Don't get sucked into something with'design' in it as being necessarily of value or use. Use your discernment. Use your faculties. Decide for yourself. Until next time, thanks very much again for listening, and goodbye for now.