Adventures in My Relatives' Garage...Still

Decluttering this house doesn't cease to amaze or at least amuse me when I find things hiding in my garage. At this moment I have three weed wackers in my garage--I had four last week, but a friend took one off my hands. I had three Coleman camping stoves without knowing it--I gave the oldest one away last month, and today I found a secret one hiding in a wooden chest that I had never peeked in. (Tribbles?!) It's another one to give away while I keep the newest and prettiest one. That's the thing when you end up inheriting the belongings of three or four relatives--the buck stops with you, and you end up with duplicates, especially if folks were somewhere on the hoarding spectrum. Yikes!  

 The secret third stove hiding in a wood chest.

 The new and pretty stove I'm keeping.

If they had only kept a current inventory of what was lurking in our garage, perhaps these relatives would not have kept buying stuff they didn't know the already had...Well, maybe the less hoarding relatives could have purged duplicates. Or not. Even though my dad could declutter masses of stuff, I do recall him famously saying that "a man can never have enough coolers." Au contraire, Father. We had some bitter words years ago as I counted about nine coolers in the garage. Last week I parted with two of them with satisfaction and relish--I'm now down to a reasonable three ice chests--gotta have one set aside for fishing and those dead fishies.

I know separate households need their own items, but purging duplicates is a good idea while you're living. Otherwise some poor relative ends up unearthing three or four (or six!) space heaters, buckets, trash cans, tents, what have you. I could have the garage sale to end all garage sales, but yuck, that's a lot of sorting and pricing. (I'll keep on with my slow and steady donating and occasional selling, but perhaps a sale is in my future.) The lesson: if you're breathing, get rid of duplicates now, please. Otherwise you're creating a seemingly never-ending adventure for the living when you're gone. 

What the heck is a Coleman Catalytic Heater? Check out the fashion on those happy warm people!

My three weed wackers, plus a cattle prod in the background.

And did I tell you about the two boxes of STAMP COLLECTIONS I found in a file cabinet in there? Do 4 cent US stamps have value today? Do I really want to labor to find this out? Sigh. At least we have the internet to research these things. 

If you have any hot donating or selling tips, or you're a stamp expert, feel free to share.