Under the Tulip Tree

The Great Garage Clean Up, Part Three

Hi.

It's Friday.

It's time for another garage post.

Are you ready?

Okay!

Here's my garage today:

ANY

Here it was the first week of the project:

ANY

Now we're getting somewhere! I'm starting to feel it though, both the reward and the pain. Things are moving along but I'm getting kinda, sorta, a little bit… tired. Don't worry, I'm gonna suck it up and stick to it. That garage sale deadline is looming over me and it's helping me stay on task.

Okay, now this is exciting. Remember this scene?

ANY

Now it looks like this:

ANY

Are you so excited?! I'm so excited! I changed my mind about leaving the "to be sold" furniture in here until the garage sale and I put it in my dining room after all. I couldn't help it. I just couldn't.

I realize I haven't mentioned what my goal is for the garage (other than to simply clean it up). My goal is to organize it into six different stations:

• Laundry and home goods
• Tools and hardware (Michael's space)
• Gardening
• Sporting goods and bikes
• Crafts and supplies (what I'm showing you today)
• Home storage (fans, luggage, holiday decorations, stuff like that)

That's the idea, more or less. I'm also challenging myself to not buy anything and to use only the containers and storage bins I have on hand. We'll see if I can do that. By the way, I don't like the fronts of magazine sorters facing out. Yes, it looks cleaner but then I have to lift the whole thing out and turn it around to get to the magazines and that just annoys me. Years ago I painted numbers on the backs of the sorters and I like facing them out instead.

ANY

This corner holds extra books and lots of drawers for art and craft supplies. Michael built the bookcase for me when we were first married and he built the storage unit when I first started selling greeting cards. (It really helps to have a crafty husband so you should find one if you can.) This area also serves as my gift wrapping station. Paintings and sculpture also by my hubby :-)

ANY

As much as I love getting rid of stuff, Michael likes hanging on to it. Though it's not really the stuff he's attached to, it's more about materials for him—like mat board from an old exhibit, plexiglass from old frames, wheels from a broken stroller, dowel rods of various colors and sizes. While I appreciate and respect his interest in keeping these materials, it's quite a challenge to organize them—especially when every ounce of real estate in this garage is coveted by me for things that are already things. Surprisingly, he hasn't been too concerned with what I've gotten rid of so far, but now I'm coming dangerously close to his side of the garage and I can tell he's starting to get a little twitchy. I've assured him that I won't throw anything out (without convincing him asking him first) but the look on his face when I told him I was going to pull everything out of his spot told me he wasn't too excited.

I might have to leave this for last…

ANY

Help me, Rhonda.

When Friends Move Away

ANY

Arden has two best friends that mean the world to her. The three of them were never in class together before this year but it feels like they've been friends their whole lives. They need each other in the way that only preadolescent girls can. Arden found out on Sunday that one of them (the one that Arden calls the brains of the group, the one that keeps them on track) is moving away to another state today. She wonders how they'll be able to stay focused without her. She wishes it didn't have to change. My girl's heart is breaking a little bit.

As expected, when her friend told her the news, Arden wanted to draw a picture—a picture of the three girls as their "Fursonas" (their own carefully created animal personas)—to give to her dear friend who has to move away.

ANY

Arden is the one on the right, the friend who is moving is in the middle.

I haven't told her it will all be okay (she knows that already). I don't tell her that she'll find another friend like her (I don't pretend that friendships like this are easily replaced). Instead, I wipe her tears and I tell her I get it. I tell her I understand. And inside my heart breaks for her a little bit.

Enjoying from Afar

ANY

I mentioned before that the bumble bees own my yard right now. I keep hearing the sad news of bee populations dwindling in other parts of the country (even here in Portland) but every year our yard seems to have more and more of them. That's a good thing (for us) but this year, their hive is somewhere a few yards down so they flock to these rhodie blooms and zip back across the yard (dozens of them, every few seconds) full-speed at head-height. There must be close to a hundred of them on this shrub at a time and their collective buzzing is the first thing you hear when you open the back door, and sometimes you don't need to even open the door to hear it. I know that part of the reason these flowers look so amazing is because of the bees' busywork. I only wish I could enjoy the blooms more, instead of counting the days until they fade and fall.

ANY

The Great Garage Clean Up, Part Two: Some Progress

Here is my garage today:

ANY

Here it was a week ago:

ANY

Do you see a difference? You don't? You're supposed to be encouraging me! I'm only one person and it's only been one week! (I'm kidding, I still love you.) Here's what I've done so far:

• Removed six bags (360 lbs.) of hardened cement
• Donated the bike trailer to a worthy sister
• Dismantled the scarecrow
• Recycled 25 gallons of old paint
• Recycled 32 boxes of old greeting card inventory
• Sorted and emptied two full file cabinets
• Sorted and prepared four giant boxes of curtains and fabric to be sold at our garage sale

ANY

Here's the view from the inside to the left:

ANY

I know, it's not good… yet! But those file cabinets are empty now, and so are lots of those containers. I've been clearing out as much as I can while pricing what I know I'm selling for the garage sale and leaving the actual organizing until all the things that I'm not keeping are officially sold/donated/trashed. So far it's been pretty easy to decide what to get rid of,  I just really want to get to the organizing part…

ANY

Here's the inside view to the right:

ANY

Not much has really been done to this side. The biggest challenge has been that I have to move things to see things but I can't move the things to see the things. The furniture is stacked three-things-high so I can't exactly pull it out then put it back in. And I can't just leave it outside. And I can't just leave it in my living room. I already have so many garage sale things piling up in the rest of the house that it's starting to look like the garage. Instead, things just have to trade places and that sometimes feels like I'm getting nowhere. The garage sale is planned for a couple of weeks from now and that will help so very much. That's if it would ever stop raining, or hailing, or if my umbrella stand would stop blowing over.

On the agenda for the weekend: sorting the tools, wood, hardware, and magazines; pricing more items for the garage sale; putting old baby clothes and toys I want to keep up in the space above the garage; shredding documents.

Oh, and thanks again, Mom, for helping me with the heavy lifting this week. You are stronger than a 20-year-old frat boy and I really appreciate that.

On Saying Yes More

ANY

I don't say yes to everything. I don't say yes to spontaneous play dates or sleepovers. I don't say yes to staying up late. I don't say yes to gum and chewy candy. I don't say yes to just this once or one more time very often. I'm just not that mom. But on Perry's birthday, I made a conscious effort to say yes more…

Mom, do you want to play outside with me? Okay.

Can you watch me play Wii again? Sure.

Do you want to play checkers with me before school? You got it.

Can I have French Toast? Totally.

Can you read me another book after you make lunches? Yep.

Can you bring cupcakes and lemonade to school today for my birthday? Absolutely!

Can I still have an ice cream sundae after dinner? Of course!

Will you snuggle with me again? Yes.

Can I stay up a little later tonight? Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Of course, not every day can be your birthday but it did feel good to say yes more. It did feel good to be that mom for a little while. I think I can do that sometimes.

ANY

Strolling through the May Garden

ANY

Between cleaning the garage and washing the 5,762 loads of laundry that had piled up because of a clogged drain situation, I haven't had much time to be in the garden. But as the sun was setting just-so the other day, the flowers started calling.

ANY

ANY

This is not my usual color scheme. I'm usually drawn to a more modern color palette like reds and burnt oranges with chartreuse and aubergine. These cottagey colors have grown on me, though. They certainly were favored by the first gardener of the property here many years ago.

ANY

ANY

ANY

ANY

ANY

(Here's me ducking as an orange-banded dive bombed my face. They sort of have the run of the place about this time every year.)

ANY

ANY

ANY

ANY

ANY

Thanks for strolling along with me. Please come back again soon for more garden tours…

ANY

The Great Garage Clean Up, Part One

ANY

I'm inviting you on a little journey. Do you want to come? Are you a little bit scared? It's okay, I'll be with you the whole way, I promise. You see, this is the state of my garage. Does your garage look like this? I didn't think so. You might think your garage is disorganized, a little cluttered perhaps, but I assure you, it is not as bad as this.

This house does not have a basement. Our other house did. Everything that was once in our basement and our old garage is now here. And it doesn't fit. It must be cleaned up and cleared out before I lose my mind. A few days ago, our washing machine overflowed. Our washing machine is in this garage, somewhere behind this mess, and do you know what? I couldn't even mop up the water. And, worse, I still don't really know what's been ruined.

I am going to clean my garage. Starting today. Starting right now because my mom is coming over and we are headed to the dump. If you're wondering why I've asked you along on this journey and why I didn't just keep this horror to myself, it's because this job is bigger than me and I need you. I'm hoping that by putting it here and documenting my progress, I'll have the encouragement I need to keep going. You'll encourage me, won't you? We'll celebrate the successes, no matter how small, right? It could even help some of you start your own daunting home organization task. It could!

This is my first picture. This is how my garage looks today. I hope we can still be friends.

P.S. That body dressed in a flannel and jeans that is strewn across the bicycles is no one you know, it's our seven-foot homemade scarecrow from Halloween.