Household Management: My "Hope Chest" Pt. 1
Thursday, April 8, 2010 by Lindsey
For my eighteenth birthday, I decided that I wanted an antique steamer trunk. I can't quite remember why I desired this large, obscure piece of history. It's not a particularly useful piece of furniture, but it makes me smile. I seem to recall my Mom's response to my request being "You're so weird. But, that is really cool." With help from craigslist, my Mother's internet saavy, and our SUV, a month before my 18th birthday we headed to look at and hopefully purchase the trunk. The people who sold it to us were a very nice older couple, and while they never used it as more than a piece of furniture, it was originally given to them by a German friend who was a world traveler, and brought it from Germany with her.
The sideways-table-phase of my beautiful trunk.
This trunk sat in my room for a little over a year, and was shifted multiple times, from laid on it's side, to standing up on end, in the corner...against the far wall...used as a table. Yet it still really had no purpose. I know most people would say "not everything has to have a purpose", but I certainly feel like something with such history deserves more than sitting around empty.
One of my favorite hand-knit washcloths.
Finally, after taking up knitting, and starting the (ridiculously tedious) process of knitting an entirely garter stitched baby blanket, the trunk found it's calling as a Hope Chest. At the moment it has...two hand-knit washcloths, the baby blanket, and a bunch of really soft huge towels that I found on clearance at Target. I have a whole list of other things that I'm slowly planning to gather over the next 10 months. But for me, the trunk is just the representation of all of the other things I have stowed away for our home after our wedding.
Baby Blanket Pre-Completion (It is finished, now.)
That includes an entire closet full of kitchen stuff which I was fortunate to acquire during my year working for Le Creuset, an antique drafting table, an antique vanity, some side tables, shelves, two TVs, a futon, bed, filing cabinet, papasan chair, a chair that desperately needs reupholstering, and lots of artwork of all shapes and sizes.
Despite all of this, I am shocked to continually discover how much more we need. Not even the "want" or "convenience" stuff...but stuff we actually need. Fortunately, this is where my trusty sidekick the spreadsheet comes in. Yep, again, I love lists. Google docs has been an awesome resource for Nathan and I, especially being long distance. I start a project, then give him access to it so that he can open it once and never see the edits I've made six months later. (Kidding, honey...I know you've opened the household spreadsheet at least twice!)
I definitely understand why this is a "must-have" on most registry checklists.
I bought mine with my '08/'09 tax return, and I LOVE it.
When I started thinking of things I use on a daily basis that we will need, I started dropping them into a random document. It quickly expanded to the point that it is now separated in tabs by the rooms in our future home, and color-coated by level of must-have, need, want, luxury.
Honestly, every time I open up my lovely rainbow of needs and wants, I feel like a Klingon sale master: armed with my bat'leth of organization (Okay, so maybe I'm still 12 at heart.) and ready to tackle the complicated and treacherous world of Craigslist, Garage Sales, Clearance Aisles, and sales at Williams-Sonoma. Yes, I get a power trip from my spreadsheets...
I am really enjoying preparing things for our home, plan to update as I acquire new and useful things and ideas. Before I wrap up this post, I thought I'd share a list of things that I plan on making/buying to fill the actual physical trunk. :)
- King-Sized Knit Blanket
- King-Sized African Quilt
- Twin-Sized Knit Blanket
- Knit Couch Throw
- 3 Knit Baby Blankets
- 10 Knit Hand Towels
- 10 Knit Dish Cloths
- Sm. Knit Bathroom Rug
- Sm. Knit Kitchen Rug
- Knit BoHo Nursery Mobile
- Stuffed Knit Elephant
- Organic Cotton Sheets
- Towels
Now, I shall go off to conquer my long list of things to do for the day.
-Lindsey
you have such lovely house! sorry I didn't respond sooner but yea I do commissions :) Thank you so much for your comment!
Hello again! I think email would be a better way to communicate, mine is slewis@c.ringling.edu
Talk to you soon!