Design Lines

When people come over, things get put away. After things get put away, things get put out. Chips, usually. The process is inexorable, though what is removed from an interior space before guests arrive varies from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. A rowing machine and the kitty litter present their specific challenges of temporary storage in a downtown one-bedroom on the thirty-second floor, while a three-quarter-finished jigsaw puzzle of the Battle of Trafalgar on the dinner table is a challenge for anyone’s domain, whatever its ceiling height and however capacious its closet space and equity.

From the plastic slides and water guns of a young family with their first adjustable-rate mortgage to the various remote controls and almost-empty glasses of Laphroaig at the most exclusive addresses, the stuff that gets picked up before people come over is as various as are property values. Indeed, of all the things that get nixed when the guests are going to be here any...