It's always tricky and time-consuming to manage airflow in an old house in the summer. Our old house does not have air conditioning (nor do I want it - although other people in this family might) and many of its windows stick; in fact, I broke a pane of glass in a shower of dangerous shards this spring trying to force a window open. So, keeping our laundry room door open to the cool morning and evening air coming in the back screen door is essential. However, that dumb door (again, old house quirks) doesn't like to stay open.
I finally figured out, duh, I need a door stop. I recalled a very charming one from my childhood, a brick covered with a knitted duck. Our neighbor salvaged a brick from our chimney when it was taken down, and made the doorstop.
So I started with a brick. I thought of making a little fabric bag for it, but then I had an even faster solution: a basket I already had on hand.
Ta-da! The basket keeps the brick enclosed and not crumbling anywhere or scraping toes or walls. The basket handle makes it easy to grab and move. When the doorstop is no longer needed this winter, the brick can go back to the garden and the basket can go back to the cupboard. Truly, this simple solution just makes me so pleased.
11 comments:
Just this morning, I was trying to figure out how to keep open my bedroom door. I don't have air conditioning, so air flow is very important here. This idea is perfect!!!
That is an excellent idea, Margo! I hate doorstops - they are often in the way (maybe I'm too often opening and shutting doors, I don't know), but the handle on this basket idea is the key; like you said, just grab it.
Great idea...
I love this solution!
Very clever solution! We use door stops too, as the breeze from the windows often blows the bedroom doors all shut. My favorite one is also a brick, that my grandmother made a needle point cover for with little stitched lady bugs all over it. I treasure it!
Huzzah for the simple-I-already-have-everything-I-need fix.
We do the same open/close/open trick in our newer house-without-air-conditioning too, so don't be too hard on your elderly house :)
I really should follow your example and make something more purposeful. Right now I have a small dumbbell holding each bedroom door open and a box of salt holding the bathroom door open. It makes me rather sad just to type that!
It just occurred to me how unsanitary the box of salt in the bathroom sounds ... it's the salt we use in the humidifier to make our hard water softer!
How great! Our bedroom door is on a slant and so always wants to swing wide open unless it's latched. And I want it open just enough so I can hear the kids but not so much.
EVERY time for the last, what, 5 years? that I use my shoe for a door stop I think "I HAVE to stop using my nice shoe for a door stop" (Because of course the only shoes that are in the bedroom are the ones that are Too Nice to Wear)
I think every so often of a doorstop--also a brick--that I'd seen once through life's years-pretty sure it involved 'cross stitched" plastic canvas to soften it. And I think 'That would slide so beautifully across the floor--but also gather the dust..."
So all that to say: You're not alone, and I'll be looking for a basket.
xoo
Brillance.
One of my friends when we were wee things in the 70s/80s had bricks covered with wallpaper (or maybe wrapping paper?) as bookends. Just wrapped like a little present. :)
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