So, to start off the New Phase, here's a couple of tips:
Tip 1- Roller Blinds.
These (the manual kind) have a habit of needing constant adjustment. The pulley at the end, with the string round it, is attached to the roller, and when insensitive clods jerk the string the knob on the other end of the string rises until the knob bangs against the bracket. The friction bond between the string and pulley slips a little and the blind's position relative to the string has changed. The net result of this is that with successive bangs, the roller blind goes up and up until it starts to jam at the top or doesn't reach the bottom any more when the string is pulled down to its full extent.
The official remedy is to unhook the roller blind, turn it over to unwind a turn of fabric and re-seat it in the brackets, which makes it one roller-circumference longer with the string position unchanged. What a hassle this becomes when you have a house full of clods.
My solution is to thread a long compression spring (such as a ball-point pen spring) onto each end of the string before the knobs are tied in place. Then (with everything adjusted to taste) the meteoric rise (or fall) of the blind is brought to a dignified stop, it doesn't slip its string and the adjustment remains correct. Clods can pull as hard as they want whilst civilised persons can choose their optimum blind parking position by feeling the tension. Simples.
>>UPDATE: It seems that the insensitive clods are more persistent than I had assumed, as the blind is still being shifted (but not as much). Perhaps it's time to change to a different kind of privacy arrangement.
Tip 2 - Adjustable Shelves.
When using the slotted-rail shelf supports of the Spur type (<ahem>, other shelf support brands are available...) you are expected to fix the shelves by screws through the shelf brackets. If you fix them as far back as they will go, there is a half-inch gap between shelf and wall, and stuff keeps falling down. If you cunningly notch the shelf to clear the vertical supports so it fits against the wall this won't happen. BUT in either case you sacrifice the convenience of adjustability, because in order to move the shelf you have to tip it up at 45 degrees to allow the brackets to come free of the vertical supports - which you can't do with the shelf screwed down and fixed against the supports.
My solution is to mark and notch the shelf as above, to fit round the supports. Then the shelf is put to the saw and the rearmost 30mm or so of the shelf (including the notches) is cut off. The two parts are then replaced on the brackets and fitted snugly up against the wall - closing the saw kerf - and the front part ONLY of the shelf is screwed to its brackets. You then have a complete and gap-free shelf, but if you need to move it you just lift out the back 30mm strip which leaves a gap big enough to allow the shelf (with brackets) to be tilted and removed from the supports without unscrewing it. It can then be relocated at another position and the filler strip dropped back in to restore the neat installation.
