We feel like we can’t ‘not’ mention the upcoming Royal Wedding on the Lok’nStore self storage blog this week, after the huge amounts of coverage in the media recently. So we have been scouring the web this week, looking for quality gift ideas related to William and Kate, with an obvious storage connection (what else would you expect at the Lok’nblog?), and despite having to wade through tons of tacky pens, mugs, Union Jack tea-towels, and silver teaspoons, we eventually found a great gift idea that we think, might not look out of place in anyone’s pad. How about the classic kitchen storage device: the biscuit tin! An all-rounder, the biscuit tin has been used for kitchen storage since the year dot, and we found this commemorative wedding tin; complete with a royal wedding cake decorated biscuit.
It did get us wondering if the newlyweds might need self-storage over the next few years, given the number of free gifts they will receive while on royal duties? Storage may already be an issue for William and Kate as they previously asked guests and well-wishers not to give them presents, but instead to donate the money to their chosen charities. Does this mean that ‘storage space’ is an issue for the young couple already? We do know that following the honeymoon the couple will spend some time living at Clarence House because as yet, they haven’t decided where their London base should be. They have plenty of choices though and could use Buckingham, Kensington, or even St. James Palace. It's hard to imagine that a ‘Royal Palace’ doesn’t have plenty of storage space, but then again maybe the huge amount of gifts received by the family is starting to cause problems.
Prince Charles revealed not long ago that between 1999 – 2001 he received over 2,000 gifts!
Some of the gifts given to the royal family are also problematic in that they couldn’t put them into self-storage even if they wanted to. Take for example the live animals including several horses, notably her favourite Burmese, given by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and ridden by Her Majesty at the Trooping the Colour from 1969 to 1986. Other more exotic and fancy animals have been placed in the care of the London Zoo, among them a canary from Germany, jaguars, and sloths from Brazil, two black beavers from Canada, two young giant turtles from Seychelles, and an elephant called Jumbo from Cameroon! These are just a few forbidden items that you can’t put into storage at Lok’nStore as ‘live animals’ are on the list, but give your local centre a call anyway because they are likely to know of a place - where you can store them. It does seem that the royal family avoids needing storage by loaning received gifts to appropriate organisations, like the Maori canoe, given to the Queen by the government of New Zealand. This is on a long-term loan to the British Museum.
But we do love the idea of the Queen holding onto the bottom of a step ladder as Phillip looks around in the attic at Buck House, searching for a pair of cowboy boots given to her on a visit to the USA in 1991.
So…what to get the happy couple who already has everything? It seems that they may not need self-storage yet, but possibly a few cardboard boxes and some bubblewrap might come in useful in the future! Either way, here at the Lok’nBlog we wish William and Kate all the best of luck for the future, and would like to say to them…
Posted in: Storage Humour