It only took 3.5 years

When I moved back to Civilization in December of 2008, I moved in with Daddy-O, thinking it would just be temporary like a few months, six at the most. I thought I would find a job pretty quickly and move in my own place with Mac. (For those of you who don't remember or are new and just don't know, Mac came for a visit and ended up staying and because his Sperm Donor is a complete and utter asshole, I resigned my teaching gig mid year and moved back here to be near him even though I didn't have a job, even though I applied for about a gazillion of them). Then the economy took a huge crap, unemployment skyrocketed, prices on stuff shot up, and I was poor and jobless and basically screwed.

At the time, thinking it was going to be temporary, we unloaded my U-haul into half of Daddy-O's two car garage. He only has one car so the other half he so generously let me cram with my stuff. and besides, the day we unloaded the u-haul, it was freezing cold and icy and Christmas, for pete's sake! A bunch of us just grabbed stuff and sorta randomly stacked everything so Daddy-O could get his car in and out and the door would open and shut. We didn't care much for stacking neatly or having any kind of organization to it. We had a deadline to get the trailer back so I didn't have to pay another day. And after Daddy-O almost whacked his car with the trailer (OMG- read that here- one of the funniest moments in our family history!!!), it seemed important to get the u-haul outta here ASAP.

Summer of '09 rolled around and I held the world's largest rummage sale. Curly and I sorta organized my stuff, which means I went through boxes pillaging my stuff for the best to sell and then restacked everything.

After that, since I was still here, I emptied my storage shed because the rental fee was killing me and my employment status still sucked so all that stuff went into the garage and some to the attic. And some got sold. The garage was still even more a mess.

Then Daddy-O 'cleaned' and his stuff got mixed with mine and basically it's turned into a potential episode of hoarders.

So here I am 3.5 years later and I still am living in Daddy-O's attic. And still have all this stuff in his garage. While I was at the conference last week, I was able to park in a garage and I was amazed at how cool my car was after sitting in a garage all week. And that did it; I decided it was time to clean our garage. Additionally, we have some weird freaking scary creepy icky undesirable people lurking skulking walking around all times of the day and night. People in our neighborhood have, lately, had car break ins so it's really a good idea for me to get my car inside in an effort to just be safer, especially when I come home at night alone, and won't have a weirdo person standing in the alley next to where I used to park.

Daddy-O agreed to help and thought he could do some of his own cleaning of his own stuff. Though we laughed because he said he wasn't going to help me ever move again. In a small technicality, he did help me move but I didn't go anywhere; we moved every single box of all my stuff and all my furniture that's here. So it doesn't count?

And that's what Daddy-O and I did last Sunday. I bought a whole lotta Rubbermaid tubs and we hit it full force. He sorted through his junk (and some of mine) and re-organized all his Christmas stuff to create space. I went through my boxes and condensed and threw away and all that type of thing. We lugged and tugged. We re-packed boxes and threw stuff away and recycled. We put junk on the front lawn with a huge sign that said "free stuff" and people took it!

By the time we were finished, 5.5 hours later, every single box was stacked on a shelf or fit neatly around the perimeter of the garage. Everything was labeled. We were both covered in sweat, dirt, grime, spider webs, and who knows what else (I sat on the floor of the garage at one point and when I stood up there was a weird red powder on my leg that even now we have no idea what it was...) but the entire garage was clean. We even pushed a broom and got the basic grunge off the floor.

And both of our cars fit in the garage. That's right; after 3 and a half years, I have an indoor parking space- that's all it took, just 3.5 years. Now I'll never leave!

Mags

Well, you said it was FREE!

The other day Daddy-O and I cleaned out the garage. It was a few hours of time but we got lots accomplished.

One thing we both decided when we started cleaning that we were NOT going to have a rummage sale. At all. I had a rummage sale a few years ago and I did it because I really needed the money, really badly. But unless I'm in that sort of dire straits again, then there is no friggin way. So we agreed.

We threw stuff away and we took stuff to the local mission store. And we came up with an idea. We had some things we didn't want to "wrap up" and box up to haul away. So we lugged a super old, beat up card table to the side of the street and set all the stuff on it with a huge sign that said "free." There was an old oil lamp, and a bunch of candle holders. There was an old Mary Engelbreit picture, and old birdhouse, and an old computer monitor that still worked but was old and bulky.

As the day went on, stuff disappeared off the table. Cars would slow down and take a looky-loo. Some stopped and others didn't. People took stuff. It was all good.

I ran a few errands and when I got home, there was one thing left: the computer monitor. The cords had been taken (probably someone wanted to sell the copper) and left the monitor.

And the monitor was no longer on the table but on the grass.

Because someone had taken the table. Seriously! Someone took the old, ramshackle, broken down, table all the stuff was on.

Well, the sign did say "Free".

Maggie

Busy day abloom

Yesterday Daddy-O and I cleaned the garage. To the naked eye, it wouldn't look like it was clean since half of it is still full of boxes and stuff, but now the boxes and stuff have been condensed and re-stacked neatly. The floor is swept. More space was created. Junk was thrown out, things were donated to the thrift store, and cardboard hauled to the recycling bins. We worked out butts off and things look completely AWESOME in the garage!!!

And while it was a beautiful day outside and I was running around outdoors, I thought I would snap some pictures of the flowers in the yard; they're better than pictures of the garage! Here are a bunch of peonies:

Here are the roses that climb on the back fence:

Here are some more of the roses that grow on the side of the house. We're going to wait until all the blooming is gone and then move it so it climbs along a trellis on the side porch.

Finally, here's some random pictures around the rest of the house:

Corabelles

Russian Sage

Cats & Kittens

Happy Summer!
Maggie