Decluttering the Garage

The Garage was Calling!

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Life here has been busy. I am back to in-person teaching (that’s a series of posts I will probably never write!) Needless to say, I’m trying to stay afloat.

John, on the other hand, officially retired June 16th! He has been spending his time on his “Honey Do” list and rereading the Wagons West series of books by Dana Fuller Ross. I think he is on book 6 out of the 30ish books.

Some of the things completed on the Honey Do:

  • reapplying silicone around the toilets
  • installing the threshold between bathroom tile and hall/bedroom
  • installing trim along front edge of shower
  • reattaching fan cover in our bathroom to sit flush with ceiling
  • repainting our bedroom ceiling
  • replacing rollers in the sliding screen door
  • removing a huge bush from the back embankment
  • installing drip system for patio plants

We also decluttered a section of the garage shelves. Since we had a couple of boxes from my mom’s house, I needed to have a place to put them. It’s all the china pieces I don’t have in the house. I’m not sure how often I will need the coffee and tea pots as well as the many serving pieces and tiny coffee cups.

We decluttered 4 boxes of books, 3 camping chairs, and 10 medicine bottles!

MANY years ago we were going to have a vacation house with a library. Basically any book we ever bought we kept with the idea of putting them in a library. All these years later, our vacation home is on wheels and books are easily carried on a kindle/ipad/phone etc. Besides, I quit buying books about 6-7 years ago when I realized I needed to read the ones I had. I’m getting close to done!! These are the hardback copies that didn’t leave when we last decluttered books.

Days 103-106 of Isolation

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Decluttering!

First, I attempted to take some boxes for donation. I called ahead and they confirmed they were accepting donations. Got there and was told “we aren’t taking donations today.” WHAT THE HECK! I just called. So the stuff from work is sitting in the back of John’s car. This was our second attempt to donate this stuff!

Maybe next week it can finally get donated!

2 boxes out of the house at least!

Second, I decided to declutter/organize my genealogy boxes. This picture shows the end result. I started with 2 boxes this size and reduced to one box. I confirmed every bit of information on every piece of paper I decluttered was also found in my Ancestry tree. I also made a spreadsheet for the birth, marriage, and death certificates I have. Needless to say, this led to rabbit hole “excitement” for me.

124 “items” gone!

Third, John replaced the storage cabinet in the garage with a shelving unit. He also purchased plastic bins to put stuff into. I used the label maker to put on the bins. Not many items decluttered but it sure does look better! The old cabinet doors couldn’t close anymore.

13 items gone!

139 items out of the house!!  Feeling accomplished!

After 30 Years, it’s being Decluttered!

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I have finally hit that section of the garage I’ve been dreading.  We found a box labeled “Pictures” and ” Fragile” taped up.  When we opened it, it was indeed pictures, in frames, from our old house that we moved out of in 1989!  Wonder what other boxes have been sitting out there for 30 years??  I’ll let you know if I find any!

Now I bet you are wondering how I know it was that old?  Several clues:

  • It was still sealed and it definitely wasn’t from the great flood of 2015
  • only newborn pictures of kiddo #2 (born in 1989)
  • only my brother’s first 2 kids (born in 1983 and 1987), no other nieces or nephews
  • WE LOOK SO YOUNG!
  • A lot of pictures of us before we had children!

And here’s a picture that definitely sparked joy when I saw it!

matulich john Barb abt 1983 resize
sometime between 1979 & 1984

 

 

100 Item Challenge – last update

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If you are looking at these 4 items and trying to figure out what they are, here’s the explanation!

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Our old motorhome had a short queen bed.  (Essentially a queen width but a full length.)  To add 6 inches to the length, I cut a foam sheet into 6 inch pieces and stacked them to be mattress height.  I then used an old sheet to cover them.  The 3 bundles measure lengthwise the width of a queen bed!  Genius right?

When we would make the bed for the night, we would pull the mattress out about 6 inches and place these at the head of the bed.  John now had an extra 6 inches so his feet now barely hang over the end.  Shorty Barb never has this problem.  Now to keep the mattress from sagging at the foot end, this piece of plywood would be pulled out about 6 inches to support the mattress.  Again, genius!

The new motorhome has a standard queen mattress. NO MORE MOVING THE MATTRESS!  There has to be a Godfather reference in this somehow but I can’t think of one!

 

July(ish) Challenge – Day 16

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This morning Barb is “suffering” as she prepares for her colonoscopy this afternoon.  John picked up an old coffee can, wandered the garage (to get away from the sufferer), and picked up all the stray nuts, bolts, screws, nails, etc.

Not sure how many items, but it has to be at least 18!  John was not willing to count them.

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Today’s Total = 18 (ish) items

Challenge Total = 297 items

Daily Average = 18.56 items per day

July(ish) Challenge – Day 15

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So I walked into the garage to do a load of laundry and happened to look up to the top of the cabinets.  Why??  Who knows!  But I did find the home and supplies for the hermit crabs.

How long ago did we have Hermie and Crabby?  I’m assuming about 12-15 years ago.  Kiddo #1 was still living here and she graduated from high school in 2005.  She moved away to go to college and has “never returned” (is that sounding too dramatic for this mommy??)  I seriously doubt they were in our home her senior year – more likely earlier – hence the range.  Does anyone remember when having hermit crabs was the big thing??  Early 2000’s??

 

Today’s total = 10 items

Challenge total = 279 items

Daily Average = 18.6 items per day 

July(ish) Challenge – Day 14

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So this morning we got up (not bright and early) to spend about an hour in the garage decluttering.  Here are the 29 items we removed from our home.  Now to load some into the car for a trip to the donation center.

3 plastic storage boxes.
1 wire closet organizer + 1 extra drawer
1 portable BBQ from John’s dad
1 gardening wire support
1 turkey fryer – used only once in 20 years
1 pair of crutches
1 child safety gate – ironically never used for our kids but to keep the dog away from the cat.
1 dried up rubbing compound
10 balls and 1 badminton birdie
1 pet watering bowl missing the water holding portion
6 miscellaneous trash things

Today’s total = 29 items

Challenge total = 269 items

Daily Average = 19.2 items per day

July(ish) Challenge – Day 12

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We worked on another shelf that had all the large framed pictures from the walls and under the bed before the Great Flood of 2015.  It has been about 2 years since we “moved” back in after the flood and the pictures were still bubble wrapped on the garage shelf.  Can’t claim we work fast!

We decided to get rid of 5.  The others will be put up in the house.  We’ve gotten used to the bare walls.  Adding a few pictures will be ok.

The nursery picture!  So sad to see it leave but “Really? We still have this?”

Freezer Grandma made the wedding wreath needlepoint for us.  We haven’t had it up on the walls for about 30 years.  Another one of those “But Grandma made it for us.” discussions.

The Los Angeles girl and the Norman Rockwell were given to us by Barb’s mom.  She “collected” these in the 80’s and when they downsized, we got them.  They aren’t our style and really, who cares if someone I don’t know signed them.  The Rockwell picture is supposedly signed by the boy model.

The seaside is one of those you get when you in your first home together and “have to” have something on the wall that you both agree on.

 

Total today = 5 items

Challenge Total = 240 items

Daily Average = 20 items per day

Garage Part 2

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504 items gone so far this year!!  We are 1/4 of the way to our 2017 goal!!

Yesterday John went through his box of stuff from his time living in Japan.  So many fun things in it!  He decluttered some of the stuff and ended with a smaller box.

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We counted 10 slides as one item.  I vaguely remember this pile being worth about 100 points.

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Everyone has these right??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we spent about 2 1/2 hours in the garage.  We finished the rafters section and removed a few unwanted items.  I’m not sure what John is doing in there at the moment but maybe decluttering his workbench???

On the very plus side, John can walk to his workbench without having to squeeze between the garage door and the air hockey table.  We are so excited!!!

We go back to work on Monday.  Our decluttering spree will be coming to a quick, screeching halt for a while.  This was a very productive week!!

Stuff for the hazardous waste center – taken today!

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More Christmas Lights and other Christmas Stuff

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10 more strings of lights

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13 strings of lights

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20 packages of replacement light bulbs

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Miscellaneous from the last Christmas box.

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bottom of the sleigh, no idea where the actual sleigh is!

 

Random stuff from the Garage – shoe rack, expresso maker, dirt devil, stair stepper, albums, bowling ball, umbrella, and poster never opened.

 

And the dry corsages and boutonnieres!!

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