I am not a hoarder!
I think it is important to get that definitive statement out there before I continue because I think I have the potential to be a tremendous, world class hoarder.
Our neighbor down the street, Sally, spends her winters in Arizona. She moved up here from there and still has lots of ties and a house down there,
Her house here is just a block away and she has a big, beautiful garage that I can only dream of having one day. If I were to covet, I would covet her garage.
Sally has offered to let us use her garage while she is away...about six months. I immediately accepted her gracious offer and have begun the process of emptying out our garage.
Our garage is a little single car affair, built somewhere around the 1930's, that is loaded down with more than 20 years of crap. There is stuff in there that the previous owner left behind.
I want to empty our garage of EVERYTHING, give it a good solid cleaning and then try to return the useable stuff we have in an orderly fashion. I can imagine putting up shelves or racks similar to the ones I put down in the Boiler Room.
I began transferring stuff over to Sally's garage last Friday. I've managed to move the large, easily moved stuff. I have most of the yard tools moved.
Today, I began pulling out garbage. At the front of the garage, all the way up against the wall, there are a crap load of aluminum window frames. They have been there since we moved in. Some have screens, some have glass, all are caked in dirt.
I loaded up most of the frames but held back the ones with large panes of glass in them. I can't bring myself to toss perfectly good glass. I might be able to use the glass for broken windows. Isn't that the thinking of a Hoarder?
None of these storm windows are marked so I have no idea where they go. I suppose I could look around the house and see if I can match up like-sized windows. But you know, we've been here 22 years now and we have never needed the storm windows. I'm saving the glass but everything else is bound for the dump.
Here are a few pictures of the mess I started out with.
I have just returned from a dump run, my first of many, I expect. I had the back of the truck pretty full, but I was still able to cover the load with my bed cover. I only off-loaded 220 pounds, which cost $27.00.
I have barely made a dent.
My plan is to work on it a little bit every day. I am the Tortoise and taking it little step by little step.
