Finding Space

The most difficult commodity to come by is space… space for storage that is.  When you buy food for months at a time there is a lot that you need to store.  Also there is the matter of clothes and other things that need to be stored somehow but accessed daily as well.  We have found many creative solutions to this issue…

Remember those things that you put under your bed back in the dorms?  Well they serve a very practical purpose up here in the bush.  Unlike in college when really it was just a place to hide dirty clothes and such, here we store extra food, suitcases and dog crates (that we won’t need till we travel with the dogs again), not to mention boxes from items that we want to keep to pack them up in when we have to move. 

Another solution… “Alaskan suitcases.”  They are not cloth.  They are not on wheels.  So what are they, you might ask.  Well Rubbermaid Roughneck Bins, of course!  We ship everything in these tough guys.  Trust me, the cheapy ones at Walmart DON’T hold up to the extremes of Alaska.  And yes we really do use these as luggage when traveling to the city.  When you go in you take several of these with you, stacked together, so that you have them to ship your groceries back in.  They work much better than boxes and stack much better than an actual suitcase.  Not to mention, the extra ones that you have at home turn into great TV stands, coffee tables, night stands, dressers,… well you get the picture.

There are surprisingly few shelves in homes here.  But not to worry!  Unlike in homes back in PA, the spaces above the cabinets are left open.  No decorative trim here, but rather many more cubbies for STORAGE!  Don’t forget the ever popular top of the refrigerator.

Many homes have caches outside that allow for more storage.  These are little sheds.  Ours is actually where our landlord keeps various maintenance things for our house and his.  While we don't use it personally, having him keep these items in the cache has freed up some space for us.

So that is how we solve this dilemma of space shortages.