apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have my own cute little folding ladder, it fits in my front closet with the vacuum and dog food, it's just tall enough to hang curtains and change lightbulbs, sorry but I'm too short for a chair to be tall enough, plus my chairs are either on wheels or springy upolstery I don't trust, this makes the ladder a neccessity!

Forget tall ladders, I can't get passed the 3rd step. I never painted all the way up to the top of my stairwell because it just freaked me out too much. Not to mention the wall is so textured it has to be painted with a big brush. Chair rail was the only way to go to excuse my craziness.

I bought a 6 foot ladder when I lived in my old apartment when I was painting. I hid it behind the couch. It was never seen and it was a great place to store it. I'm the queen of finding storage space!

I have a ladder. I just didn't know that until AFTER I started changing light fixtures. The Fiance didn't think to mention it...

I usually use a chair to get onto the counter and stand on that when I can. I have used a chair, stacked on a table to reach things that are higher up on a number of occasions. I've also stood in the kitchen sink (we don't have much in the way of actual counter...). My personal favorite stupid idea, to date, was balancing with one foot against the wall and the other on the back of the couch while leaning forward over the side table to reach the top of the window.... Amazingly, I've never actually fallen and/or gotten hurt.

I bought a multi use folding ladder from Sam's Club. Folded up it's about 5 feet tall and fits in my closet. Extended all the way I can easily reach the top of my 14 foot walls.

Now there's a lawsuit waiting to happen

I bought a five-foot ladder after one too many times of climbing on top of a pile of phone books & yellow pages on a chair to change a light bulb in a bathroom with a 9-foor ceiling. I stored it in the old coal room in the basement. In the new place I have 11-foot ceilings, so I'll probably stuff it in the back of the closet and ask the landlord (who is 6 foot something) to change the lightbulbs and help hang the curtains!

I bought a super-thin profile ladder from Home Depot. It's exactly the height of my fridge, and fits in the inch and a half between my fridge and the wall. I use it far more often than I expected to, and that space was dead anyway.

I have 16 foot ceilings and bought an old timber industrial ladder which leans against the wall on permanent display. Looks kind of cool.

I have 11 foot ceilings and I was all about the chairs on the table asking for death until 'found' a 16 foot ladder out back. By the stinky restaurant with the obnoxious all night patrons, bad oily cooking smells , littered back roach and rat habitat area , and illegal pesticides that have killed 2 of my cats. I keep it in the downstairs foyer.
( P.S. can you tell I live in NY? ha ha )

Please use a ladder. Please don't "improvise." Blah blah, safety first, you just have to be well balanced. Wrong. I got a call from my dad last weekend, telling my that he, construction worker of 30 years and diy-er of much longer fell from an "improvised elevation" situation, chipping the bone in his elbow, grating his arm open, and narrowly missing falling on all of his tools. And he was using a ladder-- but not properly. It is so important to use a ladder, and not do stupid things on or with ladders, because even people that need to use them nearly daily for 30 years are capable of really injuring themselves (and so are you)! So be careful!

We have 20ft ceilings in our living room. We need to change the ceiling fan to a new updated one but have had the dilemma of the ladder. The size we needed would require rental of a truck to bring it home! We lucked out because after Hurricane Ike, we had some repairs covered buy insurance. The painters left their ladder overnight so we could use it! Yea!!!!!

For some reason in one of my old apartments, I randomly bought a step stool. It came in all sorts of handy but it was also a bulky piece of plastic that didn't seem to fit anywhere. When I moved here, I got a decent 2-step folding ladder. I think I don't need to be higher than that, even to change my lightbulbs. If I did, I would buy a proper ladder of adequate height. Storage really isn't such a problem here - if something can fold, it is not a huge deal to stash it in a space. I think climbing on a chair is dangerous. Borrowing a ladder if you can arrange it is also fine, but don't recommend improvisations in this area. "Apartment therapy" should be safe, and not something that sends you to the emergency room. If you're not steady, you can't go wrong to hire someone who is, and who is insured.

I "share" a ladder with my in laws. It is huge. An expandable ladder that will reach to the top of our two story brick building. It made its way into town on the top of my father-in-law's truck and has since lived in our garage in fully telescoped form. It seems that our space has been deemed the one most suitable for storage of this behemoth.

I don't actually own a ladder but we do own a stepping stool - it's stored at the end of our table in the kitchen. It's not aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but it also works as a place to sit centerpieces when we're eating.

We rent, so no real need for an actual ladder since if something is broken, we call the maintenance crew. We also aren't allowed to paint. So we only needed the stool so we could reach areas to hang paintings, add temp storage to top of closets, etc.

Even though it doesnt give you much additional height, you could always go the chair-ladder route.

http://jpeterman.com/product~cat~120207~sku~DFN%202122.asp

My mom bought me a folding white plastic step ladder when I was in college and I've taken it to every house or apartment I've lived in since. It won't reach the super high things, but is so handy and stores away in a closet neatly. We got in on the cheap at a Wal-Mart, too.

http://www.makemineeclectic.wordpress.com

Once, I painted a wall on a stool on top of a side table while on phone with friend (who promised to call 911 if something happened)... Just yesterday, I used the stool to climb onto a skinny bookshelf. It's much easier to use a ladder.

My super has access to a ladder, but I think it's shared between buildings because the last time I asked for it, it was apparently being used elsewhere. I ended up getting a 6' ladder for $20 off of Craigslist. The dilemma? It's too tall to fit in my closets, so I store it in my storage loft... which requires a ladder to access. Standing on a chair gets me just high enough to slip it in the edge though, so to really dig around inside my the loft, I have to get a chair, to get my ladder, to get into the loft. Convoluted, I know, but it beats waiting around for the communal ladder to make it back to my building.

Anyone has bought the Little Giant ladder? After watching those 30 mins infomercial I always wondered if it was useful and worth the price.... It does seem like a wonderful ladder.

I have a friend who solved the problem -- he flew! Or so he claims! It seems that he worked on painting his walls with high ceilings until late at night, not knowing how he was going to reach the highest parts without a ladder. In the morning when he woke, they were done, and he had paint splatters that weren't there the n ight before! He said he knew he flew -- I myself think he painted in his sleep while on piles of furniture that his conscious mind would never have done... but then, what do I know?!

I have a Little Giant, and I love it. It extends to 15' or A frame configuration to 7'. I store it behind the door of a small storage room in my condo. The best part is; it retracts to 5' for easy storage.
They are on sale @ Costco for $169.99 (reg price $199.99) until March 1.

Check out the link:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11286949&search=ladder&Mo=19&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=ladder&Ntt=ladder&No=4&Ntx=mode matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1

Wow - that is one expensive ladder. I'll go with my step stool that was handmade in 1941 that we got in an auction. Good part of older made things is they don't tend to break - got it the same time we got the coffee table made by the same guy. Sadly both needed a little refinishing so we were the only ones who wanted them - got both for $1.50.

Anyways, here is a decent ladder at Lowes for $85 and it's 8 foot...http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=98138-000000287-368&lpage=none

I bought one from Bauhaus, and store it in an IKEA cupboard along with a spare luggage, mopa nd bucket set and several household items.

And kudos to the painter in the first picture. HOW did he get up there?!

SillyBug - good question. I would think he would have needed a ladder to get up there - LOL - and then why didn't he just use the ladder to paint?

I've also borrowed a hand truck from the local deli more than once. I always offer to leave a deposit, which seems to put people at ease.

Our 9-unit loft building has ceiling heights ranging from 15' to almost 30', so we have several communal ladders.

I recently purchased one of those multi-function tools with a 16' extender pole for cleaning and replacing light bulbs that I plan to offer up to my neighbors. Although, I don't know whether any of them care about cleaning the tops of their kitchen cabinets like I do.

i have a little giant ladder too. i had to get something tall enough to be able to reach a light fixture in the hallway that's 12' up. it really is as versatile as they show in the infomercial. only drawback for me is the weight. i'm a 100lb shorty, so it's a bit of an effort for me to wrestle with the thing up & down stairs. i'm guessing it's easier for normal size people.

There's a great video review of the little giant which shows the ladder in action.