Sunday, July 27, 2008

Pulley System

I haven't wanted to blog lately. I don't know why, it just feels pointless and narcissistic. But here I am again blogging. I want to blog about something practical, but again it is practical for me. Like always the view finder is set to as I see it.
My friend, Rachel was over the other night and, as most who visit, liked the basket storage system set up in the house. She like many of us has a storage problem and thought the idea was great. Of course the system only works if like here you have high ceilings. The ceilings in this house are 12 feet. I must admit that despite the impracticality of high ceilings and having half a room you never use, I love them. Also, in houses with close ceilings I start to feel a bit like I am in a cave. I have contributed nothing to this storage system when I moved into Natalie's house she had already put up the basket/pulley system and I have enjoyed it every since.
When we were in college Natalie and I knew a lot of engineers, because, well we went to an engineering college. One of these guys married one of our history major friends. He was a very practical kind of guy who had not only a mechanical engineering degree, but rope experience from his days as an Eagle Scout. He knew his wife needed more space for her pot lids and he came up with this idea to help. He installed a hook from the ceiling, ran a pulley with rope from the hook. Put a clip on the end of the rope and through trial and error figure out optimum location for hooks on the wall. One low hook for high position and one high hook for low position. It is actually more technical than I could do without guidance, but with the right installation you can have yourself a stashapalooza situation. I would be lost if I didn't have the baskets for pot lids, container lids, napkins, etc. Lately, I have been scoping out my front room for possible ancillary yarn stash locations.
The only warning is to always secure the rope, if you let go, you could have a mess. Once the container lids basket got away from me. It dropped on my foot (many expletives were needed) and lids went everywhere. Otherwise there have been in the last 12 years no other incidents worth mentioning. However,sometimes I do play toss the lid in the basket because I am too lazy to lower it, I am a terrible shot so I would not recommend this type of entertainment.

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