shelf shuffle

Yesterday you got to see the mind-blowing transformation of my living room, so today let's go a little deeper into the apartment.  Here's the shelf that currently color-links the living room to the dining room--all decked out for fall.

Here's a view of it that doesn't force you to look at our recycling.  And wouldn't you know this picture is already "outdated": I've flipped the objects to the opposite side of the shelf--frames on the left, books on the right.  But you get the idea.

The big news in the world of shelving is that the silver pots-and-pans shelf has migrated to the back wall.  My friend Shellie once asked me why I didn't put it there to begin with, and of course I thought my answer made perfect sense.  It was, "Because, this shelf holds my spices and pots, and when I use them I'm standing at the stove, which is on this side of the room."

Then I thought about the fact that the other side of the room is three steps away, so how much effort was I seriously saving myself by "conveniently" placing the shelf near the stove and thus right in the natural walkway?  Yeah.  Logistically the back wall is a better solution for sure.

Snugged right up next to the shelf is the toy box/bench/end table/hope chest that has moved all around our living spaces for the last three years.  I only dragged it into the dining room because there was no place it made sense in the living room.  We've used it at the table before, so I figured for now it will be okay here.  We had dinner company recently and the toddler sat there just fine.  (It's a bit of a squeeze getting adult legs under the table from the high perch of the bench.)

This rearrange is nothing spectacular but it's made the passage into the kitchen much easier to navigate.  We could remove the leaf from the table and gain even more room, but we've been having people over quite a bit lately and it's easier to just keep the table extended.  One less thing to remember when we're planning to share a meal with someone--"Quick; get the rest of the table out of the closet!"  Not that we haven't done that.  There was even a time in our last place where we forgot where the leaf was!  I think we ended up finding it under our bed.  Ha.

Have you made any small changes for the better lately?  It never fails to amaze me how sometimes the simplest things make the most useful differences.  And of course continually mixing things up keeps it feeling fresh.