I’m still planning to write my goals for the next month, but this is going to be a busy week so goals might be a better post for Wednesday. I had a productive weekend and I feel pretty pleased with myself, so I want to get it documented so I can come back and re-read this next time I feel stuck.
Because I’ve been so busy lately, I made very few plans for the weekend. There was a one-time kids’ consignment sale happening nearby, and I decided I would take Emma to see if we could find some well-priced summer clothes. I also needed to buy the tickets to her dance recital, which happens in June, so I was looking forward to a leisurely Saturday morning of running errands.
We got home well before noon, which left me with several hours before dinner. Saturday may have been the nicest day we’ve had this year, and I didn’t want to spend it inside. I thought about going for a walk, and then I thought about cleaning the garage.
The view from the laundry room.
I love walking. Whether I choose my neighborhood or the trail, the scenery is great and I always feel energized after. And my loathing of the garage has already been well-documented.
But I chose to clean the garage. I’m not sure why.
I willingly followed that beam of light into the abyss.
Working in this space was not on my radar for the weekend, so I had no plan. There are two ways into the garage: through the main garage door and through a door in the laundry room. Most of the time I enter through the laundry room, but Bob already had the big door open. My goal was to be outside, and I found it a lot less overwhelming to work there. I had room in the driveway to set up boxes and a big trash can, and spread stuff out so I could make decisions about keeping, donating or trashing.
After a few minutes of taking stuff out so I could get in, I came up with a plan. We had lots of boxes with tools from our assorted DIY and repair projects. An old dresser has been designated for tools and the like, so I cleared out several of those boxes and relocated the assortment of screwdrivers, wrenches, and other tools there. We’ll have to reorganize the drawers but in the meantime a lot of space was freed.
We’d also accumulated a lot of sand toys over the years. Emma decided she no longer wants them, so I ran them through the dishwasher to get them clean enough to donate. I nearly filled the entire top rack with sand toys, and then I found even more which I haven’t washed yet.
When I was done, I’d filled two boxes of goods to donate, not including the sand toys, and one bag of trash.
It’s a very small dent, but it’s a start.
On Sunday I finally started packing away our winter gear. While I don’t agree with Marie Kondo’s belief that we shouldn’t need to store off-season clothes, I did find her folding method works well even when items aren’t going in a drawer. I fit multiple heavy sweaters, two pairs of ski pants, scarves, hats and mittens into one medium-ish Rubbermaid tote. Bob was doing his usual Sunday laundry thing, which I didn’t want to disrupt, so I’ll have to wait to wash our vests and jackets.
Sweaters and corduroys, folded KonMari style.
I’m not going to be able to do too much over the next couple days as I have a PTA event which will keep me out of the house and busy. I’ve dragged some things from the garage into the house, which has reminded me that this mess will get worse before it gets better.
But more boxes came into my life today.
I don’t know what makes me happier: cookies or empty boxes.
They won’t fit much, because they’re on the small side, but I’m still glad to have them. Especially now since I can reward myself with Tagalongs.
Are the boxes big enough to hold glass things that need to be packed away before finding a home?
4% is still progress and certainly more than what I’ve done in my garage!
Thanks! Yes, the cookie cartons are a great size for knick-knacks, mugs, smaller stuff like that which I have a lot of.
good for you for following that beam of light into the abyss (I love your wording!). My husband cleaned the front portion of our garage to allow bicycles a safe haven without scraping the side of my car. It is so much better now. I’m enjoying reading your progress.
Thank you for letting me know! In the meantime my garage is going through the worse-before-better phase which means the bikes are in the house. Ugh!
It’s really inspiring reading about your progress. Well done and keep going!
Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. 🙂
Excellent progress! I have a storage shelf that holds bins to hold my boxes. No joke. Yes – I have a problem 😉 Keep working at it – lots of little dents make a big dent!
Thank you! You are right about the little dents adding up. I have a few empty bins and nothing to put in them, I am hoping to get rid of them soon.
We finally did a little work in our garage but there is more to come as my mother is doing a garage sale and I told her I would help her (ugh). Although this wasn’t my deep spring clean where I drag everything out and hose out all the winter gunk, we did use the blower to get all the leaves and some of the dirt out. Moved the 4 wheeler to the back yard, hung up a bike that doesn’t get used much and sent the snow blower to its summer spot in the back. We also put the 2 lawnmowers next to my parking spot thus opening up the 3rd stall which will now allow us to park the “kids” car in the garage. Now to go purchase a garage door opener to finish it off. We can now park 3 cars in our garage. It does help that two of the stalls are deep and there is plenty of storage in our garage but I do know other families in our neighborhood with garages as big as ours and they somehow manage to park one car inside during the winter. We still have a lot off stuff out there I am getting rid of that we don’t use anymore now that the kids are growing up and starting to move out.
Wow, that’s a lot! I really want to be able to park my car in the garage too, it’s a big goal but hopefully someday.