The garage is bad. As in, we haven’t been able to park a car in it for a long time. We require people to sign a non-discloure/confidentiality agreement before they go in. We keep a stack by the door.

Okay, maybe not, but we definitely threaten retaliation and/or death by noodle thrashing.

Before this weekend, there was literally a foot wide walking path in there from the door to the house to the garage door. Part of it is because we’ve got stuff from inside the house jammed in there, including the refrigerator. But, in all honesty, it was horrid before then.

To the Dumpster

Since we have a commercial dumpster in the driveway, we decided to take advantage of it. A lot of old cabinets from the kitchen were taking up space in the garage, so into the dumpster they went. I’m really not sure why we held onto them.

Except we opened one of them and found shelves full of dishes, candlesticks, serving pieces and a fondue pot. We got them for our wedding. 18 years ago today. Clearly, since I opened that cabinet and was shocked by their presence there, I don’t need them.

If you’ve forgotten you even have something and it hasn’t been used it in over a year, you probably don’t need it. I’ve got a charitable organization coming to pick it all up in a couple of weeks.

A box of old pictures frames? To the dumpster.

Building materials we won’t use? Dumpster.

Boxes of papers we haven’t looked at in God knows how long? Dumpster. (They weren’t tax returns.)

This fugly pot? Complete with dirt still in it? Dumpster.

Seriously, we were keeping it why?

There are a lot more boxes of I-don’t-know-what in there. And random piles of fill-in-the-blank. We’ll be making our way through them over time. We’ve also got a lot of cleaning supplies and old paint, so I’ll need to investigate where to take those since they can’t go in the dumpster.

I’m telling you, it feels good to be rid of all of that junk. Really good.

Not Yet Ready For Garage Organization, But I Can Gawk

I read a blog called A Bowl Full of Lemons. Right now she has weekly cleaning challenges and one of them recently was the garage. Her garage was the complete antithesis to ours. Tidy. Labeled. Actually clean. And room for two cars. Who knew?

After I gawked at the photos of her perfectly organized garage, I howled at the “it should only take you a few hours” comment in the “Tidy Upper” option. When I caught my breath and my stomach stopped aching from being doubled over, I thought, Yeah, no. Days. Days, I tell you, is what our garage will require.

Days upon days upon daaaaays. *Insert dramatic swoon*

I never took a picture of the garage before the clean up this weekend, for which Stephen and the kids get all the credit. Yes, we made the kids help. And they happily earned money for their effort. But here is a picture after the work they did. You’d think that would be the before shot.

But it’s progress. And I’m good with progress.