Yesterday I spent much of my day working in the garage. I have a lot of shelves in the garage - about 300 linear feet! One wall of shelves has been collecting junk lately and I just couldn't stand it any longer. I sorted through everything and threw a bunch of junk away. I also put some items into a pile for selling. I found some stuff that I knew would sell so I put a couple of ads on Craigslist. When I sell something this way I never give my name, address, or phone number. I conduct all business by email and then we meet at a public place. Whichever public place I decide I make sure it has video monitoring cameras throughout.
My kids keep dropping stuff off here for me to store. Sure the garage is huge and I have two barns and a shed but I don't need to keep junk. For example, son had brought over some boy clothes. Most of it was garbage but he insisted on keeping it for their next one. Well, their next one came along...boy, even. But did they want any of their stored stuff? No. They wanted new clothes and things. If you aren't going to use it why do you have it? I understand sentimental value so go ahead and pick an item or two but three bags of stained, ripped clothes? 25 bibs when the only time I've seen your kids in bibs is at my house. I use one of our bibs. I don't need your 25. I have six.
It's not that we don't have a lot here. I have a bin for each size of clothes from infant through teen, when they grow into adult clothing. But if their parents don't want to use what I have, then once the youngest grows past that size, even I will cut way back. A child doesn't need much more than a few pairs of pants and t-shirts, especially if TSHTF. Cute clothes aren't on the top of the must have list.
I have several ice chests. One has a lid that got warped and doesn't close all the way. I'm trying to figure out if I still want to keep the ice chest. Probably. When I clean out the freezer I put frozen food into it. Even with the bad lid the food stayed frozen until I was done with the cleaning. So for that reason I suppose it's worth keeping it. I do have a couple of new ice chests. They are fantastic. They claim that they'll keep ice frozen in the ice chest for five days when it's 90 outside. When we were travelling a couple weeks ago it wasn't 90 but it was in the 70s. I put a weeks worth of frozen food into an insulated food bag and put that into the ice chest. Then I filled the area surrounding the bag with ice. Not only did the ice stay frozen but the food did too. For six days! Amazing when comparing that to the older style ice chests. I saw one today at Walmart for $39. Definitely worth the price. If I have enough smaller ice chests I may get rid of the big one anyway.
Oldest daughter has been buying furniture at yard sales so when oldest grandson moves out next year he will be able to furnish his own apartment. All this got put into the barn. OK, but if he doesn't use the furniture is it going to be saved for the next kid, then the next, then the next? I took the tarp off because mice were chewing pieces of the tarp to use in their nests. The barn is next but for now, the garage.
Oldest daughter, Army daughter, and son - they've all been warned. Next weekend is the big clean out my garage weekend. If they don't participate then I will choose two or three items that I want to keep and the rest will be sold or donated. If you don't like it then you'd better explain to me why it is needed. Or better yet, why it is needed at my house. Next weekend should be fun. Maybe I'll make some money that can be spent on good preps!
I'm with you. Too much stuff in the way becomes unsettling. Good luck with the purge.
ReplyDelete