Too Much Stuff

The temperatures have not improved. It's cold, rainy and bone chilling damp but I can't wait any longer. You simply would not believe what has accumulated in our garage over the winter. This photo montage tells the ugly story.



This is an absolute disaster. Somehow we find ourselves with a three-car garage with zero cars parked inside. I cannot sleep at night knowing all this mess lies one story down. It's crazy making stuff.

It's pathetic and it's got to stop.



Some of the stuff, like the cardboard, was easily dispatched with this morning's garbage pickup.



The old refrigerator is going require them to come out here with a special truck. In the next picture you'll see the back of a cool 1960's walnut hutch that my daughter has yet to retrieve for her new apartment. Unfortunately we must keep our large garbage can and recycling bin in the garage or the animals get into it and then I'm doing garbage duty on two acres.



One corner is filled with 800 lbs. of porcelain tile yet to be laid.



Let's not forget that my son and I have already laid down 1,100 square feet by ourselves.

One dead ironing board, two broken vacs and a carpet cleaner in need of repair. (Sing that to the tune of Partridge in a Pear Tree).



You've seriously got to wonder how this could happen. I swear there's no excuse.

EXCEPT.....I found evidence that this stuff has been breeding at night when I'm not looking! They're drinking cheap white wine in a box and partying into the wee hours. Fourteen days later there's a new crop of junk.

I have evidence!!!!

My garage sale junk mated with my gardening equipment. The result? This mini-garden rake with NO TEETH!!



And look at this:



An unborn broom still in the hanging basket's womb....... not yet fully developed - no handle!!!

Two days of work and things are starting to look a little more organized.



Wish me luck because I'm going back in there tomorrow. If they've been partying again, somebody's gonna pay.

Timber!

Surely a small forest of trees has fallen victim to my habit of making lists. However, my list making talents cannot hold a candle to a former co-worker who kept a list to organize her lists!

She knew something was terribly wrong when she found a list in her eight-year-old daughter's room that included a detailed plan for her day including "bathroom break" and playtime scheduled down to the minute. Something had to give. She has since learned to relax a bit.



My lists are definitely a bid to stave off the ravages of time on my memory. It's impossible to count the times that I've returned from a shopping trip with everything except what I went for in the first place. I was wasting alot of time and gas, since I live 9 miles from anything.

Three-by-five index cards are my material of choice simply because they're sturdier than post-it notes or just plain paper. But index cards ain't what they used to be. They are flimsy, flimsy, flimsy!!

Why all this talk of lists? Because when I opened up my wallet at the post office today there were no less than four lists inside! Some things had already been crossed off and usually before this point I combine and create a new list. The colorful list in the center is a post-it note taped to a recipe for bruschetta. I've been using this as a bookmark.

I make myself laugh when I read them. A perfect example of humor is the use of exclamation points.

flowers
vase
circle labels
lettuce
salad dressing
find sunglasses
butter
cheese
big pot
eggs
make sauce!
get money!

Yeah.....get money, for sure!!

Nature's Miracle is one of the items on a list. Here's a plug for that stuff. This stuff is terrific if you have pets that have accidents. That's me! I need more.

Included on the lists are places I want to remind myself to visit when I'm out running errands, such as.....

CUPCAKE SHOP

There's a new one in nearby Geneva and I still haven't visited. I really need to get over there before they close their doors. It has been known to happen to me.

I've heard there's a guy out there who saves all his lists and publishes them. I'm quite sure mine aren't that interesting. I've also see a book at the bookstore comprised of lists someone has found in shopping carts. Amazing material. You could write interesting stories based on someone's shopping list.

kitty litter
olive oil
chocolate syrup

Please tell me I'm not the only list making fanatic, besides my former co-worker of course!

Clean Sweep and Sleep

My mind has been overcome by the stuff in this house and I'm finding increasingly difficult to fall asleep. It's as if the sheer weight of the possessions hiding in every possible hook and cranny are pulling me down.

I am not kidding when I say every closet, cupboard, cabinet, desk, bookshelf, vanity and a three-car garage is packed to the rafters. Seriously, I can't stand it anymore.

Night before last, as I tossed and turned I made a promise to myself to change matters starting first thing in the morning. I'd already taken a load of clothing and books to Goodwill earlier in the week and I was on a mission to load up the car again.

What better place to start than in my bedroom... and the jam packed closet that I face every night when I attempt to fall asleep. I yanked a bunch of stuff out and weeded heavily.



Can you believe I had a large shopping bag FULL of recipes I've cut out of magazines and newspapers and a bunch of handwritten ones also. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to deal with this but I'm not going to live long enough to actually cook them all.



Included was this article about Ruby Ann Boxcar's, "Ruby Ann's Down Home Trailer Park Cookbook." Included are two recipes. One is for Dr. Pepper Salad and the other is for Taco Roni Salad. What am I saving this for? I hate Dr. Pepper (tastes like a childhood medicine) and the Taco Roni Salad sound gross.



Maybe this weeding will be easier than I first thought. Here's the recycle pile.



I will keep things like my manila envelope full of travel brochures, both places we've visited and others we'd like to see.



Please pardon my temporary insanity. I just feel like I can't be creative until I divest myself of a ton of excess baggage.

I'm off to figure out what to do with a real mink Russian hat from Moscow. Don't ask.

Divesting the Heavy Load

When I was younger acquiring things had a magic all its own. Collections were amassed with great gusto and it all seemed very important and satisfying. As young newlyweds the Farmer and I were thrilled to find an antique oak ice box in pristine condition. It was soon followed by more antiques, books, porcelain dolls, rabbits and any number of other crazy collections.

Menopause brought on another chapter in life, one that I will title "Divesting the Heavy Load". As I aged it felt like all the stuff was weighing me down mentally, physically and emotionally. It was beginning to fry my brain even thinking about what was lurking in cabinets, closets, boxes and desks. My need to simplify my life took on an urgency and I became Goodwill's new best friend.

The antique ice box which once was a prized find had become a very, very heavy albatross. Divesting yourself of a lifetime of stuff is not an easy task. I swear this stuff breeds at night when I'm not looking. What else could explain 23 casserole dishes in the kitchen cabinets? I could be a one-woman pot luck dinner.

My task is made more difficult by the fact that I live with the Other Mother who has never gotten rid of anything. EVER. And I'm not kidding. She has the iron and ironing board that she received as a wedding shower gift almost 70 YEARS AGO!! And no, the iron does not work and the ironing board weighs 25 lbs.

The nice men who came to install the drywall in the basement must have thought I'd lost my mind when I started asking them whether they knew anyone who needed a few things. Hey, they had a truck and I needed it gone. They said yes and the next thing they knew their pickup truck was loaded to the gills with wing chairs, an old cedar chest, lamps and much more. They were thrilled and I was even more thrilled.

The divestiture (on my part) is going well. I'm feeling infinitely lighter in spirit. I've done well in all but two areas, books and fabric. It's impossible for me to part with a book, unless it's the Farmer's copy of U.S. Tax Codes from 1983. I didn't shed a tear over that one leaving the house.

Fabric is a priceless commodity to me. It represents possibilities. A single length of fabric can be transformed into any number of fabulous items. It's difficult for me to toss even the smallest piece of fabric into the trash because my mind is always thinking about what could be done with that little bit.

My fabric stash is pretty ridiculous. This is just a small portion that resides in my in-home studio.


My fabric stash overfloweth.

Every so often I take the time to neatly fold and colorize but the gremlins soon appear and mess it all up again. There's a large cabinet downstairs filled (two rows deep) with folded lengths of cloth.


These "Toile people" look way too happy.

Oh, and then there's the extra large plastic containers filled with more fabric.


A favorite antique reproduction print.

If I'm ever forced to live in a cardboard box it's going to be outfitted with a bookcase and a storage rack filled with fabric.

Are you divesting yourself of the dead weight? What's the one thing you'd never do without?


Halloween garland made from fabric scraps.

This garland can be made for any season. Make one for yourself.

MAKE A RAG GARLAND