Collection Cleaning and Rearranging: The Tipping Point(s)

The Stablemate avalanche earlier this week was the tipping point for me. (No pun intended.) It was time to do a major rearranging of the models on my shelves. 

I have a growing group of new models that can't fit on the shelf with their counterparts, and the collection hasn't been dusted since I replaced my old shelves with the IKEA ones in 2019. 

There was actually a second tipping point -  I was working in my office and bumped over my Huckleberry Bey conga. They are tippy models and it doesn't take much for them to topple. Time to move them to a better place on the shelves.

I put the Huckleberry Beys on the bed in the spare bedroom for safe keeping while I figured out what I wanted to do.

Then I gathered all my Stablemates and began sorting them.

I didn't count how many I have, but it was more than I'd realized. (A common cry of the collector. Haha!) 

I'm going to hang on to that now empty acrylic riser but I may move the dogs into an enclosed cabinet where they will be safer.

I decided to put my Vintage Club Stablemates and a few Stablemates that I really liked into the Stablemate barn instead of packing them away in a box with the others.
 

The Stablemates are now cleaned, rearranged, and packed away or on display. But I'm not hitting the easy button yet. The rest of the plastics are going to be a huge undertaking, let alone the three china cabinets. My guess is that this will take me at least a week, if not more.

Stay 'tooned! (And wish me luck!)

Moving the Minis

I have loved my new IKEA shelves and the way they match and are cohesive, the space they provide my collection, and how the color brightens up my office.

There's been one little thing that's bothered me, though, since I replaced those shelves.

I realized mid-installation that I might not be able to go all-white as I had hoped

because I also had a curio for minis in the office and it was anchored to the wall. I considered painting it so it would match the IKEA shelves, but decided that that was more trouble than I wanted to go to and that I would just let it be.

With some extra time on my hands due to the postponement of my pancreatic surgery, I reconsidered that decision. I had the time, and with a three month post-op lifting restriction looming, I figured that if I were going to detach the curio and move it into my library, now was the time.

It took some wrestling and some caution to move it - I did not want to scratch the hardwood floors in the hallway nor did I want to break the glass in the curio doors.

I also had to pack umpteen jillion mini Hagen Renakers and haul them to the other end of the house without breaking them. (I did break one - drat.) Then I grabbed some tools and attached the curio to the wall in its new spot - my library doubles as a guest bedroom and with frequent grandchild sleepovers, I did not want the curio tipping over.

Today's project is to unpack all my minis and put them back into the curio, something that will be relaxing and fun. (I think I'll listen to the most recent Mares in Black podcast while I do it.)

While I am still sad that my surgery had to be delayed, it was nice to have the time to switch out the shelves. I like how my office looks now that the curio has been moved.

Off to (carefully) unwrap Hagen Renaker minis!

Finis! And Worth the Wait

I've wanted matching shelves for my collection since I was a child

but always made do with whatever was on sale or was given me, and whatever fit the space I had available. That's varied a great deal - when all of our six kids were young and at home, my models resided on shelves in the basement. There simply was no room on the other two floors of the house for them!

I prefer to have my collection where I can see it often, and after our last child moved out and got her own home, I took over one of the bedrooms and moved the collection into what became my office/sewing room/horse room. (Aka, my favorite room in the house.)

This past winter I decided that it was time to get those matching shelves of my dreams, and after doing some research, I settled on IKEA billy shelves.

 Replacing shelves when you have a large collection cannot be done all at once.

 You have to find someplace to put the models that were on the old shelves first.

And, you end up using the new shelves to hold the models as you remove the old sets. (I could barely get to my desk at this point in the transition!)

I bought seven full sized IKEA billy shelves in white and two smaller ones, all of which required assembly.

 Two of the large sets were broken when they were delivered in April

 and the replacements just arrived last Friday. I have been working since then to finish the transition.

I spent all day yesterday moving the last two shelves into my office and then juggling conga lines of molds to ensure that I could get everyone into a spot.

 It has been a tremendous amount of work, but I love how my office looks now!

 All the shelves match and are the same size

and everything looks clean, bright, and open.

I keep trotting upstairs and sitting in my desk chair, looking around the room and smiling.  It has been well worth the wait.

Shelving Update

Yesterday I spent most of the day in my office switching out the old shelves for the new IKEA ones.

 I am so pleased with how they look!

The shelves are from IKEA's Billy shelves line and they are taller and wider than what I had so I can get more pieces on each set. And, I think they have a cleaner look than the hodgepodge of shelves that I've been using for the past twelve years.

I still have two to install, one that will replace this large brown set of shelves

and another to replace the two narrow ones that I've put in temporarily there on the far end.

Those last two large sets arrived with damage so I am waiting for IKEA to send their replacements. And as busy as I am with teaching right now, I may not get the new shelves installed until June.

But that's okay; I am in no rush. And in the meantime, I can still enjoy the ones that are already in place.

Life Can Be Crazy!

How can going back to work, even for only five weeks, change life so much? Suddenly there are not enough hours in the day, even though I am only working for six and a half hours a day.

I leave home at 6:30 every morning as students begin arriving at 7:15. That means that I have had to change the time that I go out to the barn. It has worked well to swing around there as I am coming home from work (I finish at 2:45 and am usually packed and ready to go by 3:00.)

Tim is back from Europe and has begun rotating through the pastures again. The growth of the grass is still not enough to sustain the herd so we will be feeding hay a bit longer. But the horses are happy with the change in scenery anyway!

They are all in various stages of the shedding process; Sultanna still has a beard!

All the horses are glad to have the warmer, dryer weather and are in good spirits. (This is Guppy, a gelding belonging to Tim's other boarder.)

Going back to work has derailed my progress in putting together the IKEA shelves and then switching them into the places of my old shelves.

I came home from work one day to discover that Craig had put several of them together for me in one of the spare bedrooms. What a huge help that was to me!

He moved one into my office only to realize that I had not yet cleared a shelf of model horses and that he could not install them until I did.

I am also in the throes of preparing for a Great Lakes Congress show this Saturday (fortunately I had made my list of entries and prepared my documentation before going back to work!) While show packing adds to the list of things that need to be done, the show is going to be a much needed break from school for me.

My five week assignment is with thirteen middle schoolers, all of whom have been expelled. They come from four different middle schools in the area, and they are pretty rough kids. But... they're still kids, and my goal is to remember that as I work with them instead of reacting to their rudeness, disrespect, and insolence. This is my second week in the class and their behavior and language is already much better. They have begun to accept me and are getting their school work done (for the most part) now.

Still, I come home every day with my ears ringing and very ready for about thirty minutes of quietness before I feel recovered enough to resume my activities at home. Going to a model show this weekend is just the thing I need to clear my mind.

The IKEA Shelves are Here!

Last February I joined my daughter, Lisa, at the Indianapolis IKEA to help her look at some shelves for her home. She came back to Lafayette with some beautiful blue bookcases, and I came home with some ideas. I had fallen in love with IKEA's Billy shelves.

Currently, my office is a hodge podge of shelves. As my collection grew, I would add in a set of shelves, bought wherever I could find a sturdy set that was not too expensive. But for a long time, I have wanted matching shelves. The Billy shelves would serve that purpose, and they were taller and wider so that I could get more horses onto them.

I thought about buying them for a month, measured my office, and made some floor plans to figure out how many Billies I might need. White shelves would go best with the trim in the room, and I finally decided to take the plunge after doing a lot of measuring and math. Even better, I discovered that the white Billy shelves were on sale and that to deliver the entire set of nine shelves that I needed, IKEA would only charge me $100. I made the purchase.

The shelves arrived Friday afternoon, and since I was at school teaching, Craig accepted the delivery on my behalf.

He even carried them all upstairs and into a spare bedroom for me, then decided to open each box to be sure that the shelves had arrived without damage. Sadly, two sets had cracked boards and will need to be replaced by IKEA.

Saturday morning I got to work on the switch-out. I started in the corner by the door and plan to work my way around the room. I really cannot do more than one shelf at a time because I have to remove the horses and put them somewhere before carrying the old shelves out of the room.

My craft table can just barely hold an entire shelf's herd of horses.

 It took me a couple of hours to make the first switch out. (Those are the two carpet herd pieces that were on that shelf and are old favorites of mine.)

I was very pleased with how the shelves looked after I got the models back on them.

Next I tackled this corner, a place where it is clear that I was running out of room and adding shelves willy nilly.

 Not only did it take my craft table to handle the numerous models,

but it also took a card table. Everything just barely fit between the two.

I wrangled the old shelves out and down to the spare bedroom. (Using a towel underneath the shelves allowed me to push them through the halls and rooms which have hardwood floors) 

Then I put together the next set, got them onto the towel, and pushed them back across the house and into my office. That's another carpet herd member trying out his new abode.

This morning I finished filling that shelf with models and am happy with how it turned out.

Two down, seven to go!

Choices in Shelving

Currently the shelves in my horse room are a hodge podge, a mix and match of units that go back to the 1980s.

 Colors range from dark brown to light brown, cherry, and white. 

And the heights vary, too. Since I retired, I have been thinking of replacing them and having matching shelving. One thing I can rule out right away are cabinets with doors - while these keep dust (and pony pals) out, I prefer to be able to see my collection clearly.

I have looked into built-ins but I hesitated to permanently turn my office into an office - we won't own this home forever, and the next occupant may need it as the bedroom it is supposed to be.

I may have found a solution. Saturday, Lisa invited me to go with her to IKEA in Indianapolis. She was looking for shelves for books in her own office. (If you can't put horses on your shelves, then put books on them!)

 Naturally I poked around for possibilities for my office while we were there. I really liked these.

They're affordable and have one more shelf than my current shelves as they taller.  They're wider, too, so I would have to adjust for that.

 A narrower matching shelf is also available.

 I am certainly thinking it over. I have a busy week ahead but that's okay - it gives me time to weigh options, take measurements, etc.