City living Old Style?

juliapenguin

flutterbyuk25 wrote: »

Could you pop into your neighbours flats to see how they deal with the lack of space issue? You may find some ingenious solution that way, and make friends?

x

Our newest neighbours moved in and then went away on holiday almost immediately - I can't wait for them to come back as they are Chinese and really into cooking I can feel a nice home made Chinese dinner coming on! The woman is a lecturer at the same university as me, and we're both new there, so it will be so nice having her there.

The ones on the other side seem not to speak English very well - they are also Chinese and I've tried to talk to them a few times, but they are very young and very, very shy. I have invited them to come in, but they have refused (so far). I think Christmas will be a good time to get to know people - even people from other countries understand that that's a time when the normal barriers come down!!

The only bad thing about living here is that some of the other tenants make such a disgusting mess in the common areas. When you go into the basement rubbish room, people have just thrown piles of rubbish on the floor instead of putting it into the bins - there's loads of notices put up, but it's still a big problem. People also open their post by the post boxes and if they don't want it (junk mail or requests to buy a TV license or pay council tax :rolleyes:) they just drop it on the floor. The worst thing, however, is that when you come in the front door, there'll be something like a Magnum wrapper just inside. By the post boxes, there'll be a splodge of melted chocolate and ice cream. And then, in the lift, the stick will be on the floor. Same with McDonalds stuff - Big Mac box by the door, lettuce by the post boxes then the half eaten burger on the carpeted floor :mad:
I can't understand it - these are lovely flats and I can't see why people don't want everywhere to look decent.

Moaning over.

Olliebeak

juliapenguin wrote: »

..............The only bad thing about living here is that some of the other tenants make such a disgusting mess in the common areas. When you go into the basement rubbish room, people have just thrown piles of rubbish on the floor instead of putting it into the bins - there's loads of notices put up, but it's still a big problem. People also open their post by the post boxes and if they don't want it (junk mail or requests to buy a TV license or pay council tax :rolleyes:) they just drop it on the floor. The worst thing, however, is that when you come in the front door, there'll be something like a Magnum wrapper just inside. By the post boxes, there'll be a splodge of melted chocolate and ice cream. And then, in the lift, the stick will be on the floor. Same with McDonalds stuff - Big Mac box by the door, lettuce by the post boxes then the half eaten burger on the carpeted floor :mad:
I can't understand it - these are lovely flats and I can't see why people don't want everywhere to look decent......

Oh dear - what utter pigs :mad:- makes you wonder what the inside of some of their homes can be like! I'm afraid I'd be picking up anything with names/addresses on and stuffing it through their letterboxes with a 'very pointed' note about Communal Area responsibility - then again I'd probably get my answer too . Do you have a 'Management Committee' or something similar that you could raise a complaint to?

Would there be any point in putting a small bin for rubbish in the entrance area for everybody to use - obviously SOMEBODY would have to accept the responsibility for the regular emptying of it, but that would be better than dirty litter everywhere.


I know the fashion is for 'beds on legs' these days, BUT there's much to be said for storage divans - at least you can stash spare duvets/pillows/bedding/towels in them - if necessary in those 'space-saving bags'. Have you got under-bed drawers on wheels - they are useful?

Coffee-tables with storage are great too. Also, I know they're maybe not ideal, but what about a couple of 'bedside tables/drawers' at either end of your sofa as storage AND somewhere to put a lamp/coffee cups.

juliapenguin

Great idea about the bin - I'd much rather empty the bin than pick up scummy rubbish (which I do all the time - especially if I've got friends coming round).

Our management committee is a complete waste of time - it's just the developers who own all the flats and they don't live here. You're right about the stuff with addresses on - we should go and bang on their doors and explain that there are no magic fairies here who clean up after people. :mad:

What confuses me is that this is not a cheap place to live - we pay £650 a month, and they absolutely will not consider anyone on housing benefit, so presumably these people all have responsible jobs somewhere to afford the rent (not that I'm suggesting all people on HB are not responsible - I was on it for 7 years when I was a single parent even though I was working) so presumably they can't be grubby and irresponsible at work.

We have the daft beds on legs, with about three inches underneath the base, so it's difficult to get anything much under there. I love storage divans - you can get so much in there.

Anyway, we've just been out on a walk round Castlefield and have realised that we don't know much about Manchester at all - it's a fascinating place to live and I'm going to make the most of being here, scummy neighbours or not.

Thanks so much everyone for your advice!

Pitlanepiglet

I'd echo the butchers block suggestion, we used one in our rental kitchen that was sooo badly designed.

We bought a really cheap one from Argos and hubby added all sorts of cup hooks and rails to it so that we had baskets within it for veggies, a rail for tea towels, hooks for sieves, colanders, splatter thingy and utensils, plus it had drawers for utensils and a couple of shelves as well. There wasn't an inch of the thing that wasn't used and we just shifted it from one side of the room to the other as we needed to move it. It was a bit of a pain having to keep moving it but it was soooo useful.

Hubby kept nailing it back together again and we freecycled it when we moved!

juliapenguin

Pitlanepiglet wrote: »

I'd echo the butchers block suggestion, we used one in our rental kitchen that was sooo badly designed.

We bought a really cheap one from Argos and hubby added all sorts of cup hooks and rails to it so that we had baskets within it for veggies, a rail for tea towels, hooks for sieves, colanders, splatter thingy and utensils, plus it had drawers for utensils and a couple of shelves as well. There wasn't an inch of the thing that wasn't used and we just shifted it from one side of the room to the other as we needed to move it. It was a bit of a pain having to keep moving it but it was soooo useful.

Hubby kept nailing it back together again and we freecycled it when we moved!

Was it like this one? http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/8407461/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CKitchen+and+laundry%7C14418476/c_2/2%7Ccat_14418476%7CKitchenware%7C14418477/c_3/3%7Ccat_14418477%7CKitchen+trolleys%7C14418494.htm

It looks like a great idea as I could wheel it out of the way when I'm not cooking but have it in the middle of the floor when I am. It looks like there's loads of room to store stuff on there.

Pitlanepiglet

Ours was http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/8404811/c_1/1|category_root|Kitchen+and+laundry|14418476/c_2/2|cat_14418476|Kitchenware|14418477/c_3/3|cat_14418477|Kitchen+trolleys|14418494.htm but it didn't have the knife block and other thingie on the end. OH put cup hooks on that end to hang sieves, colanders etc. on.

We would have been lost without ours as we didn't have enough storage space or worktop space.

juliapenguin

Thank you Piglet - that looks great. I'll get measuring up to work out where I can put it when it's not in use - it will be perfect for when I'm cooking dinner (especially when other people are coming) but it will need to be pushed out of the way after use as you can't swing a cat in here and it's our only living room! I'm planning to have lots and lots of friends round as we are so close to the city centre and it will be lovely to have friends and my students coming round after work.

I also plan to do some teaching from home, so I need to keep everything looking nice in the main room, and I really appreciate all the suggestions.

Thanks everyone xxx :beer:

jessicamb

regards the bed with storage suggestion earlier - there is a way to maximise even more space if you get an ottoman bed. Basically you can life the mattress up really easily to access the full 5ft x 6ft space underneath for storage. Something like this http://www.bedworld.net/Ottoman-Beds/filter.html

Obviously that will cost money but maybe for the future.

Fire_Fox

Olliebeak wrote: »

Oh dear - what utter pigs :mad:- makes you wonder what the inside of some of their homes can be like! I'm afraid I'd be picking up anything with names/addresses on and stuffing it through their letterboxes with a 'very pointed' note about Communal Area responsibility - then again I'd probably get my answer too . Do you have a 'Management Committee' or something similar that you could raise a complaint to?
.

This happens in our flats too - I put the litter back in the offenders post boxes or shove it under their front door! We also have people stubbing out fags in the carpeted foyer, admittedly the carpet is carp but it's still carpet. My parents' block out of town is VERY smart and they had someone throw their Xmas tree out of the window into the manicured gardens ... and leave it for weeks. :eek:

PS. Can I join the Old Style city living club please?? :T

*zippy*

We used to have a very small house and you do become very inventive at storage Looking back I don't know how we managed especially with two little ones. A few things I can remember

You really can't have clutter so everything was kept to the minimum, I had no kitchen gadgets, just the basics and never more than one set of anything. I didn't stock up on spare food so by the end of the week the food cupboard was empty ready to be refilled and I had a slimline veg rack so they didn't take up any cupboard space.

We used to hide lots behind the sofa as it was against the wall and covered a small lamp table in the lounge with a cloth so I could hide dvds underneath.

All the beds had room for storage underneath and only this seasons clothes were kept in the wardrobe, the rest would go up the attic,

The house looked great, but hubby used to warn the ceiling would come down one day as there was so much in the attic :rotfl: