Cleaning the Garage (Phase One)
It may seem strange to start my journey with a task that most people leave until just before moving day. Considering the fact that I do not even know yet when and where I'm moving, why bother?
For me, though, dealing with my material possessions (and garage-cleaning -- along with attic-cleaning, basement-cleaning, and storage-shed cleaning -- is, "A Dealing-With-Yer-Shit Intensive"). I enjoy the periodic purging of my worldly goods, paring them down to just those things I really value, and dumping the junk. Makes me feel renewed. Of course, that periodic purging is the goal. The reality is, it doesn't happen that often. Still, I'd venture to say my material possessions are fewer and better organized than most folks' stuff.
My good friend, T, is an examplary case. He makes his living from stuff. He buys, sells and trades collectibles, so he deals with other peoples' stuff that passes through his hands, making him money along the way. For the past few months, T has had a fair number of boxes of his stuff stored in my garage, as from time to time he uses it as a staging area when he packs for cross-country trips. He travels to swap meets and collectors' conventions around the country. He's been promising to get that stuff out of there, but weeks go by and there's still piles of it. Since he uses the space too, I prevailed on him to help with the cleaning.
The garage is a large building, divided into several spaces. My neighbor to the left stores old business records and office furniture. A wall of filing cabinets defines that side of my space. The space to the right has had a succession of renters. The most recent, F, decided recently to build a wall between his side and mine. To accomodate the construction, much of my stuff was moved into the interior of my space. There was essentially a large pile of my stuff, and a large pile of T's stuff. Shelves against the back wall were difficult to get to, creating general disorder and the neglect of stored stuff.
A year ago, the landlord had the building re-roofed, resulting in a thick layer of dust and detritus all over everything. I had had my things covered with tarp, but a surprising amount of this stuff was left behind when the tarp was lifted, as though it had penetrated right through the heavy plastic. No cleaning had been done since, because it was so difficult to move around in there.
So today's goal was to move all the shelves out and reassemble them against the new wall, move the large stuff like the patio furniture against the back wall and free up all the interior space. T has moved about half of his stuff out, and promises to remove it all by week's end.
Then phase two will commence. The goal of phase two is to evaluate everything that's on those shelves, decide what I can get rid of, and hopefully free up more space. I am having another friend, M, come over and help me secure the shelves to the wall (hey, this IS earthquake country). I want to free up enough space to store two weeks worth of food and water, and then some.
The ultimate goal? To severely reduce ALL stuff so that when it's time to leave, there'll be that much less stuff to worry about.
For me, though, dealing with my material possessions (and garage-cleaning -- along with attic-cleaning, basement-cleaning, and storage-shed cleaning -- is, "A Dealing-With-Yer-Shit Intensive"). I enjoy the periodic purging of my worldly goods, paring them down to just those things I really value, and dumping the junk. Makes me feel renewed. Of course, that periodic purging is the goal. The reality is, it doesn't happen that often. Still, I'd venture to say my material possessions are fewer and better organized than most folks' stuff.
My good friend, T, is an examplary case. He makes his living from stuff. He buys, sells and trades collectibles, so he deals with other peoples' stuff that passes through his hands, making him money along the way. For the past few months, T has had a fair number of boxes of his stuff stored in my garage, as from time to time he uses it as a staging area when he packs for cross-country trips. He travels to swap meets and collectors' conventions around the country. He's been promising to get that stuff out of there, but weeks go by and there's still piles of it. Since he uses the space too, I prevailed on him to help with the cleaning.
The garage is a large building, divided into several spaces. My neighbor to the left stores old business records and office furniture. A wall of filing cabinets defines that side of my space. The space to the right has had a succession of renters. The most recent, F, decided recently to build a wall between his side and mine. To accomodate the construction, much of my stuff was moved into the interior of my space. There was essentially a large pile of my stuff, and a large pile of T's stuff. Shelves against the back wall were difficult to get to, creating general disorder and the neglect of stored stuff.
A year ago, the landlord had the building re-roofed, resulting in a thick layer of dust and detritus all over everything. I had had my things covered with tarp, but a surprising amount of this stuff was left behind when the tarp was lifted, as though it had penetrated right through the heavy plastic. No cleaning had been done since, because it was so difficult to move around in there.
So today's goal was to move all the shelves out and reassemble them against the new wall, move the large stuff like the patio furniture against the back wall and free up all the interior space. T has moved about half of his stuff out, and promises to remove it all by week's end.
Then phase two will commence. The goal of phase two is to evaluate everything that's on those shelves, decide what I can get rid of, and hopefully free up more space. I am having another friend, M, come over and help me secure the shelves to the wall (hey, this IS earthquake country). I want to free up enough space to store two weeks worth of food and water, and then some.
The ultimate goal? To severely reduce ALL stuff so that when it's time to leave, there'll be that much less stuff to worry about.
1 Comments:
Gosh...Been there...in fact we're STILL there. Moving from one state to another, my first thought was to de-junk. I've really let my stuff own me over the last few years (instead of the other way around) We're lean now and ready to move.
Good luck. All the work will be worth it.
Allen...a fellow sojourner.
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