Dregs of the Garage

The garage is almost ready for the AFTER picture. Not only is the last of my flea market stock now removed, but Jeff went and cleaned up all the untidiness that various carpentry projects have contributed to over time.

There is a big empty space now where before there was a jumble of junk. We can get out of our car in the garage and walk to the inner door without worrying about stumbling over a single thing.

I'm impressed.


All the things in this post for the most part were awkward items left in garage corners because they didn't fit into boxes. They took up a ghastly amount of shelf space.

The exception to this is the comic books which I'd been saving for my friend Chris. Today, he took them away and I think it's safe to say they've found a home which will appreciate the adventures of Conan the Barbarian more than mine ever would.

2788 things gone.

More

I can't even always remember which boxes are things to keep and which are full of flea-market junk.

Yesterday I pulled out a box from the area where I keep my holiday ornaments and there was all this STUFF . Egads! *shakes head in disbelief*

Of course, it's all gone now. :)

2729 things gone.

Okay to Cheat a Little

I've told a few friends about my "Ten Thousand Things Decluttered" project, and one of the questions that they ask is "Do you count every single thing?"

Well, I said, I'm not sure if I should. I mean, every single thing ? Is it too silly to do that? Example: so far, I've been counting a pair of earrings as a single item decluttered, even though I could argue that it is actually two physical objects...

No, said my friends (laughing a little), count everything .

"A bead is a thing, a button is a thing!", said Claudia. "If you want to really count to ten thousand, you should do that."

In a phone call yesterday, Tai said, "Hey, see if you have any poker chips to get rid of...you could count those!"

Heh, that was a bit spooky. I looked over at the box of poker chips on the countertop that was coincidentally sitting there just waiting to be tossed.

On the wise advice of my friends I am going to cheat a little today, which will boost my count by exactly 417.

Why not? I might as well have some fun with this process.

Hmmm, so let's see...that will make 2579 items decluttered.

Indecision

You see, it's things like this wooden rack that are hard for me to let go of without a second thought.

It's rustic, appealing, perhaps useful......hmmmm... I was very much aware of how I was teetering on the brink of keeping it, how I was actively brain-storming for good justification to stow it back somewhere in my home.

However, I thought and thought about how I would really use it, where I could usefully put it---and not a single useable idea came to me.

Out it went. I'm sure somebody will give it a good home.

It was Item # 2162 decluttered.

More

The whole overhead shelving area on the left side of my garage is empty except for a few forlorn signs that I used to advertise my perennial garage sales ( I recycled them by just changing the date and time.)

Now I have just passed the two thousand items decluttered mark (a fifth of my original goal). I now think that it may be unlikely to actually reach the ten thousand item goal...I have given away an enormous volume of STUFF already. Do I really have that much more? I'm not sure.

But in any case, two thousand things released is fairly impressive to me at this point. My mother (also in the process of emptying her cluttered spaces) pointed out that many, many people around the world would not even be able to claim ownership of so many things.

And here we are---still burdened with a surplus of possessions even after shoveling out so much. It's a little embarrassing.

My old and ugly kitchen clock has found a new home by replacing an even older and uglier clock. And the daycare now has a clock that actually keeps time....

2161 things have now been released back into the universe. Yeah, that's it. :)

Friends Are Clearing Too

This past weekend I stayed with two sets of friends who were both in various stages of the dejunking process.

R was finally clearing out his horribly cluttered garage and selling some of his old never-used models and kits, and his wife M thinks it was the recent unexpected death of his mother that has precipitated his sudden need to purge himself of unwanted belongings. They have also rid themselves of some unneeded furniture by donating the items to a women's shelter program. Their old couch/desk/tables are now furnishing the small basement suite of a single mother and her new baby.

They feel really glad they did this--made them feel good.


As for my friends D and W, there are boxes upon boxes in their spare bedroom filled with baby items. The items have been in a sort of limbo for the last six months as their little daughter grew out of them, but D is now planning to pass them on because she says its very unlikely they will have another child.

The daycare alone would cost eighty dollars a day and D says she wouldn't be able to afford to stay home without running a daycare of her own...and "plain and simple," she told me, "I would go crazy."

1960 items gone.

Regaining Momentum

I was away for a birthday weekend and took a break from my space-clearing but I'm back at it now, along with a flurry of reading organizing books a la Don Aslett, and some rathe fluffy feng shui manuals---all inspirational in their own way.

1860 items cleared out.

Wouldn't Want to Buy My Junk Back (Thank Goodness)

After I dropped off a load of my clutter at the Goodwill the other day, I took a quick look around the store. I wasn't shopping; I was looking for my old junk.

I was wondering if I'd feel any pangs when I saw it on the store shelves. Well, I did NOT.

What I thought as I spotted a knick-knack of mine here and there was: $2.99? I wouldn't want to buy that back for that! Forty-nine cents? Nope, they can keep it forever for all I care!

I'm rather relieved.

1731 things junked.

No More Storing Things for Other People, No More Ebaying

I've sold a few cheap earrings in lots on Ebay in my time but the two or three dollar profit is not worth the hassle and worry of getting the package where it's going. I probably burned up a good portion of my profits in packing materials and gas to the post office when I was an Ebay merchant. That's the trouble when you don't have anything worthwhile to sell.

The above containers actually belonged to the daycare but our shelf space was limited so I said I'd store them temporarily. Well, a year later they are heading back. My shelf space is limited too! Besides, we can always use them as sandbox toys.

These are frames Sharon gave to me to sell. Somebody shopping in the thrift store is going to be happy to find them no doubt. Me, I have to admit I'm a sucker for frames. I'm keeping plenty. At least for now.

I'm sorry to say that these fabric books ended up as garbage. My curbside magic did not work soon enough and a torrential downpour soaked the cardboard and ruined them before anyone spirited them away. I didn't mean to make them into garbage (I don't like to think of any of my clutter being land-fill fodder), but unfortunately it sometimes happens.

At least the encyclopedia set was snapped up in time.

1606 items decluttered.

More Stuff Gone...

1507 things gone. Junked. Kaput. :)