Reassembling the little shed

Ever since we brought the little shed home from the allotment it’s taken up residency in a spare corner of the garden, hidden behind the pizza oven. Still in its component parts. Our intention was always to reassemble it. I’d hatched a plan to use it to free up some space in the greenhouse, which was becoming a bit full.

And finally it happened.

MOH is a perfectionist, and I’m a just get it done kind of person. He wanted the warped doors straight, I was happy for them to provide some shelter for the contents. Well, they say opposites attract!

While he perfected the banana shaped doors, I cleared a space for it. Finally emptying the last of my ‘reserved’ soil in pots around the garden. That’s been hanging around for a while too.

Neither of us had even put felt on a shed roof before. But how hard can it be? It turns out, I was more of a perfectionist at this point.

It was about now that I shared my next masterplan with MOH. You’ll see why he’s the patient one. As part of clearing space in the greenhouse I wanted to change the staging, and the wooden shelving which had already been cut in half and repurposed once before, was now set for its final destination. Unfortunately it didn’t fit in in a single piece. Perhaps we should have built the shed around it?!

And so we started to take it apart. Some of the bolts were rusted, he was the one with the muscles and the patience. And no doubt bemusement. But they came apart, and along with some old brackets we had in the shed were soon inside the shed almost where I wanted them. Remember it’s a small shed, and let’s just say at some points he wasn’t that impressed with my shelving plan. Mostly when he was head and shoulders and twisted inside the shed, when I was insistent the shelves didn’t wobble.

These bolts, and a bit of rotten wood were all that was left. Not bad for a reuse project.

Once we got the shed in place - which took a little longer than it should have - it was surprisingly easy to fill. Without the shelves, it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as useful.

Another job jobbed. Finally. Though he’s still not happy with that banana shaped door!

A shed, or Aeropod?

Today’s post has been prompted by recent travels and remembering an stand that it’s safe to say was a little bit more out of the ordinary at Grand Designs Live last year. And yes, even more unusual than most at the show, which for a show that attracts some innovative thinking is quite something.

Not many shows, or perhaps even house owners can boast an Aeropod I’m sure, but it does prompt the question of where do old airplanes go to die, and why don’t we have more of these? The simple answer to the latter is of course cost, but putting that aside for now, shouldn’t reuse be our aim?

It is for Dappr Aviation, and their aeropods are quite something. I almost had to prise MOH away, thankfully (cost aside) there’s no way we can get one of these into our garden - craning it in was even mooted - and having one in the front garden overlooking a busy London road wouldn’t work either.

But they are rather special.

We spent almost as much time looking at the accessories which also make use of parts of old planes and are equally as innovative.

Aren’t they great?

Shed tidy-ups and storage

* This is a paid collaborative post

If you’re anything like me your shed is a place to cram things into over the winter, which come spring is something to be sorted out.  It always starts out as being a Really Good Idea, but rapidly goes downhill part-way through, and of course that’s usually when some bright spark - yes that’s usually me - has suggested we empty the whole shed, and our garden ends up looking something like this:

In my defence, MOH is a rummager.  And it drives me potty.  However as the shed is supposed to be his domain I try not to let it bother me too much. Then there’ll be a point where he admits he has no idea where he put the thing he’s after, unless it’s bike stuff of course, he uses that more regularly so has a better of idea of where that is.  But when he says the shed needs a sort out, then I know we’re in for an “everything out” kind of tidy up.

It’s no bad thing either.  We often find all sorts of things we didn’t realise we still had. There’ll be many diversions of wondering if this fits that, or if it could be used for something else and it’s then that I remember why I keep these chairs.  Every time we discuss their fate, and they live on the edge, but survive the cull.  It’s when I remember their usefulness during shed sort outs, when one of those diversions take place, that I’m always grateful we kept them.  I’m learning from experience though, now I even set one up ready for use,  I’m not even kidding…

Once everything is out, I can often be found marvelling at how much stuff came out of a relatively small space.  Quickly followed by wondering how on earth even a reduced amount is going to fit back in.  At times I wonder if we should buy another shed, something like the concrete sheds from Lidget, so that we have space for everything, although I think like many people we would fill whatever space we have - but that’s normal right?

On the whole the contents does go back in, and looks neater than when we first started so that’s always good.  We know now to choose a day that’s at least going to be dry as this is a process that takes place over an elapsed time period, for many of the reasons given above, but also because when it comes to Operation Refill there’s as much discussion about what should go where and how much it’s used. 

My logic says if it’s not used so much then it can go at the back and can have things stored in front of it, as there’s not space for everything to be right at the door, and never will be.  But then again, if it’s not used much, do we need it at all.  Like pruning plants, pruning stuff can be addictive!

In our latest tidy-up I’ve tried a radical approach to storage.  Instead of having our shelving racks around the edge of the shed, we’ve filled a quarter of the space with racks which are stacked three deep. So now it’s really important to know what’s used, and what needs to be gettable, and have this on the front, open rack or placed on the ends which are just about accessible.

MOH took some convincing, but went with it, and I’ll admit it’s not usual. But it leaves us with plenty of space for the lawn mower and other garden tools, and bikes, including mine, and all the paraphernalia that comes with them, the sun loungers and parasols, and even a ladder.  That’s not bad going either really, when you consider we also needed to find homes for our latest paint tins additions following all that work on the conservatory too. 

But we got it all in, and I think I pretty much know where things are, down to at least to which rack and often which shelf.  It’s the sort of brain I have and a ‘skill’ that MOH thinks is peculiar, but then again as I said before he’s a rummager, which is probably about as far apart on whatever kind of scale this is, that you can get.

So tell me,  have you got a shed tidy planned, and is your approach similar or quite different?

* While this is a collaborative post, all views and opinions remain my own.