I’m a little envious of my friends who move every 4-5 years. There’s an automatic necessity to purge. After ten years in this house, we’re getting a little accumulative. I’m reading websites and all that about simplifying your life, etc. They have two things in common –live in the present, and get rid of all but the stuff that clutters up your life.
Easier said than done. For the record, that’s not my garage — there aren’t any boats in it.
A few weeks ago I spent a day mucking out the garage. In keeping with my recent purging behavior (Goodwill loved me last week), I’m tossing a lot of junk into the giant city-issued trash can. The larger, more valuable stuff that would be of little interest to Goodwill goes on the curb. It’s often gone in a matter of minutes. Yesterday an old Workmate was snapped up in 45 minutes, about 25 minutes more than I expected. An 8-foot section of 3″ PVC pipe took a few hours longer. I needed 2 feet of it. The rest has been taking up space.
What I really need is this for Wife 1.2’s Corolla.
My shop (or gear storage or anything) will never look like this:
I don’t want it to. The problem is I am Visualman. If it’s behind a door, in a Rubbermaid, or otherwise hidden it doesn’t exist. I need to see stuff. Clear containers help, but they are fragile and crack.
I would welcome any feedback from my readership who have ideas, aside from throwing and/or giving away stuff. Or if you’re borderline OCD and a tad anal, feel free to trade de-cluttering services for canoe or kayak lessons.
Respectfully submitted,
Canoelover
1. Refrain from collecting anything you aren’t going to use immediately. (Our newest tactic.)
2. If you just can’t resist something new, something old must leave to make room. (Keeps it simple.)
3. Categorize when you organize. Keep all supplies for a particular task together: paint scrapers get stored with painting supplies not thrown in with garden hand tools even though the last time you used the scraper was outside on mud dauber nests.
4. When having-everything-you-need-to-tackle-any-project is part of your DNA, remember everything has its place. That’s 1 (one) place: keeping things in their most logical place saves lots of time.
Wishing you a happily organized 2011!