How to avoid falling off a ladder

We can talk about the garden heights another time, when my spider phobia is under control. So yes, there are times when we have to reach ever higher, we just have to think before we stretch our luck.MY CORNER PAINTING WORK AT CEILING HEIGHT IS ALWAYS WOBBLY Painting high up is where you most often see people trying to ‘make do’ with whatever they have handy to reach the high spots, using as little effort as possible. It’s a false economy. It really is. The time you take to find a chair to stand on, change your mind, try a garden bench, realise it’s too dirty, go back to the chair but add some books on top, your paint needs remixing. All ad hoc methods lead to being unstable at height, which will make your paint work suck. If it’s a normal ceiling height, it is absolutely worth investing in three step ‘step ladder’ with a steadying hand hold at the top, for not much more than $100 – and you’ll have it for life. High ceilings and stair cases are trickier, but as I always say ‘if a job’s worth doing, you don’t want to do it twice’. Though I’m no fan of paint pads, these straight edge painters, on an extender pole are gift from above, and you don’t need to use as much pressure on them if you are up a couple of steps. Amazon and hardware stores supply them.THE HALLWAY IS SO LONG – I CAN’T FACE GOING UP AND DOWN THE LADDER A MILLION TIMES…Moving the ladder is one of the most frustrating parts of working up high. I swear it’s more tiring than the actual job at hand. It may not be a job you need to do more than once every few years, so maybe not worth investing in a huge ladder. Try hiring exactly what you need; a trestle with planks. It makes it so easy! A pair of trestles (1.8m height), and two x four metre planks costs around $114 a day from Kennards. If you have a huge room, or indeed a hallway, you can get three trestles, and six-metre-long planks for around $150 a day. The time and energy savings, and the quality of the finished product, pretty much outweigh the cost. If space is an issue, you could of course get a big ladder, and I confess here to investing in one of those three way hinged contraptions that I never, ever got to work and caused more than a few heated, domestic discussions. If you do go the ladder route – please be so very careful; always maintain three points of contact with the ladder – always! Keep your mobile phone on you in case of emergencies, and do not rush.EITHER I’M GETTING SHORTER, OR EVERYTHING IS GETTING HIGHER … If you haven’t used your serving platters in years, it may well be because they are in the alps of kitchen-land; the top cupboard. The top cupboard holds a wealth of things you bought on sale, got as a wedding present, or couldn’t fit anywhere else. Getting up there however is a pain, so you don’t. As we get older, we get shorter, so it’s time to get smarter. Do a purge in the kitchen (and the closet) of all the ‘I’ll use that one day’ items to free up space, and then migrate the contents of the top cupboard down to human height. You’ll be amazed at the goodies you forgot you had – it’ll be like a Kogan sale in your hallway.If downlight globe changing is high on your list of ‘too hard’, remember you had kids for a reason. Get those two metre moochers on the job (or hire someone), and then buy floor and table lamps. The light is so much more flattering. Those cobwebs on the cornice? Take the head off the vacuum, and without much stretching use the hose to suck them out of sight. And finally, ‘grabbers’ (trigger operated mechanical hands) are really useful – and absolutely never fail to amuse the dog. Via news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site https://www.news.com.au