The Garage Returns, and Happiness in 2014

I haven't written here in a while...

I have some tiny bits of info. Shred day got rained out so I now have two boxes of papers sitting in my trunk...I think the next free shred day is in March. I'm stubborn and frugal enough to hold out because shredding service seem to run about $40 for small jobs here. Maybe the desperation to be rid of boxes will get me to cough up one day, but geesh!

Tonight I grabbed a few small boxes from the garage and was amused and dismayed (as usual) to find:

• A box of my great-grandmother's letters, postcards, and Christmas cards, the Christmas cards mostly from 1967--when stamps were four or five cents.  I wish there was a market for canceled stamps, but I haven't really found much info saying it's worth finding buyers. I will say the retro Christmas cards are kinda cool--and many are the size and shape of a business envelope. Sadly, I doubt the thrift store will take used cards. I'm sure some art student would like them, but...it's a lot of trouble to find said art student.
• A box of quail and duck shells from 1985.
• Hand grip exercisers. (Ouch! Never could use those.)
• Walnut grabber pick thingies--what are they called?
• A dusty turtle and frog figurine.
• A relative's paperwork from 2002.
• A cool retro metallic but beat up measuring tape.

Pretty typical! The garage is much easier to tackle in cooler weather, so I should consider a weekly visit and sorting in there this winter. 

Traveling in an airport last year, I bought Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project, where each month she tries out common self-help habits to see if they really make here life happier. It became a bestseller, and I confess I only read a few chapters so far, but she does tackle the "organize your home" habit. She mentions that not many studies have been done relating decluttering to happiness, but the common knowledge out there is that cleaning up will lead to less stress. Hmm. If anything, I'd say having a to-do list hanging over your head--as in, get rid of a bunch of stuff--does cause stress, and as I slowly but surely unload things, I do feel some triumph and like I'm moving on with life. The more time goes on, the more I want just my own stuff--not the stuff of relatives--hanging around my home. And aesthetically, I am tired of seeing the stuff. I am still surprised (but not) by the little random items I find--and as amusing as it can be, here's hoping I can part with many of these things in 2014.

Experimental Poetry

Experimental Garage Decluttering Poetry
(partly inspired by William Carlos Williams and written in a few minutes)

I have four oars
in my garage
vintage
or just old
three are wood
and look like they could decorate a pub
but no
they are in my garage
one is worn out plastic yellow

I own a small boat
kept an hour away near a pond
that has tons of lilypads
I rarely use that boat

So
goodbye two oars
I'll keep the pretty one and I guess the plastic one
because I assume plastic might hold up better than wood

Guess what, Goodwill?
I have two oars for you.

Cleaning for the Cleaners...and Pondering Mortarboards

I'm sitting here as the carpet steam cleaner guy preps some rooms in my house. Nothing makes me see all the stuff scattered around my floor like the carpet cleaners because I have to really pick up and vacuum before they come. It's been two years or more since I had the carpet cleaned, so this is overdue. My family used to joke about "cleaning for the cleaning lady," but having cleaners come out is definitely a motivator to deal with items I don't even see anymore.

Went through an old trunk in the infamous garage yesterday...found WWII papers and orders. That's okay. But I did come across some English papers from 1934 and 1936--my grandfather earned A's and kept them. I know I still have some OLD school assignments, but I'll have to consider, as I get older, how to streamline those types of mementos. The room I'm sitting in now has a bag with not just my high school mortarboard, but also my college and grad school caps. Do I really, really need all three to remember the events? (I do love that I wrote "Adieu!" in masking tape on my high school hat.) I graduated--it happened. I've gotten jobs as a result. Perhaps now's a good time to part with at least one...some kid can buy it at a thrift store for a costume. I'm not against keeping some things--but when I'm pressed for space and trying to leave less behind, I want to be thoughtful about how much I leave, let alone schlep around when I move in the future.

Okay, so the truck engine that runs the steam cleaner isn't working right...someone else might need to come out to do the job. Hopefully this can get done today and I won't have piled things onto furniture for nothing!

_______________

mor·tar·board noun \ˈmȯr-tər-ˌbȯrd\
1
: an academic cap consisting of a closely fitting headpiece with a broad flat projecting square top
2
a : hawk 2 b : a board or platform about three feet (one meter) square for holding mortar

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mortarboard?show=0&t=1341523239

Keep It Clean and Healthy

Today I have an eye infection. Can't say how I got it, but I realized why women in the past wore scarves over their hair while cleaning. I constantly touch my hair to get it out of my face, and yesterday I dug into a dusty, moldy box with yearbooks and photos from 1939 on. Yuck! The box even smelled bad. No memorabilia is worth health problems. I threw out a lot of stuff and need to throw away more, but wow, what a reminder to be careful while cleaning. 

We constantly touch our faces and hair, and my shorter hair hits my eye area. I really need to wear a head-scarf and perhaps rubber gloves. And while a garage is okay for storing some items, the heat of the summer can't be good for paper and photos. (Some photos melted with a leather wallet!) Not a good way to preserve items and keep them dust and mold free. Will try to return any kept items to climate-controlled indoors. I can hear Peter Walsh's voice saying we must properly store items if they're truly valuable to us.

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.