my attic

I finally got everything up into my attic a few weeks ago. Was actually a lot easier than I expected. I did take some items out of their box and hauled them up one at a time, repacking the box once I was up there, but that’s not a big deal. Especially since these are items I’ll use maybe once a year.

I expected it to be a bear because the opening to my attic is ridiculously small. It’s a square in my upstairs hallway. Probably not the smallest square ever, but there’s a pull-down ladder built into it.

Tres handy, but it takes up valuable inches and means that only small boxes will fit up there. And even those small boxes don’t fit along with my head so I balance the boxes precariously on one arm or the other as I go up the ladder. Then when I’m about 3/4 there, if it’s light, I can just shove the item up. If it’s heavier, I’ll balance it on top of my head and keep going until I get to a point where it can just fall off my head onto the floor of the attic. Once everything’s up there, I then crawl up myself and rearrange things away from the opening.

The main reason I hate this? Most GHIs have pull-down STAIRS, not just a ladder. So one can climb up with an item without feeling close to death and the opening is large enough to have such crazy ideas as storing furniture in one’s attic. Seriously – this almost made me not buy this house. But then I realized that I don’t have a lot of attic-worthy stuff and got over myself.

I organized my attic into different sections. Broken-down moving boxes on one side. Clothes in a different corner. Bonnaroo supplies all together waiting for June share the same wall with other random items that I don’t need on even a semi-regular basis. Christmas on the other wall. Yeah. There’s a lot of room leftover.

And those doors? They came with the house. Makes me think that the attic opening used to be larger because otherwise how the heck did they get them up there? And what happened that made them close up that large opening and have this tiny one? I don’t understand.

I do like the blue walls. Not the prettiest shade and crappily done, but it’s pleasant to have that extra color in a space that’s normally just brown and white. I also appreciate the floor and the carpet scraps, both of which were there when I moved in. And the doors are handy to block off the edges of the space where the insulation and whatever else is uncovered.

And there’s a light! And extra outlets!

I don’t know why one would need an outlet in the attic, but I love that it's there for whenever I figure out the reason. I also love that I can stand up in there. How cool is that?

One day I’d like to buy some sturdy rolling wardrobes with garment bags so I can store my out of season clothes up there. Would make swapping out my closet so much easier. Right now I have all of that in my spare room closet, but I’d rather use that closet for something else.