It has been said, that this Field's family is a tad bit of a "packrat" type family. I come by it naturally, as my Mom has always been a 'collector" and we discovered after my Dad died, that he was quite a collector also. Scott also comes by it naturally as his mom is a "collector". Now what we treasure and collect is as different for each one of us, as we are different from each other.
My husband is a collector of BIG stuff (cars, lawn mowers) stuff that I would think is JUNK!
Nate is a collector of all things sentimental, as well as Musical instruments.
Lauren...well her clothes and shoes and purses are a tad bit out of hand.
And me? I like to collect supplies for projects! And Like my husband (Scott) I also collect things that "we might need sometime)
So, what is the point of all this? Our GARAGE! It is three bays and hasn't seen a car since the first year we moved in...ten years ago. We moved quickly and so 15 years of dance studio "stuff" went into the garage, mostly in cardboard boxes. And then things just snowballed from there. We have three bays of floor to ceiling boxes...with just a thin path around the outskirts. I have made it my goal to "fix" this problem this summer...before the critters move in again. Every week for the last two months I have spent a morning or two out there, with little to know appearance of success. I go through boxes, throw away anything that the mice and squirrels have been in, take stuff to Goodwill, put stuff that will be sold at OLD THINGS into bins to be cleaned and tagged, and take stuff to the dump. BUT I am not kidding when I say, it was floor to ceiling.
I came to a stand still last week and desperately needed the help of my husband in order to reach more boxes. Today was the day...we went in at 9:30 and we worked until 1:30. he moved the plywood and peg board out of my way and then I threw every empty box out into the driveway. YUP we collect empty boxes too...any electronic or gift that came in the box, we probably have {had} the box. Nate spent the morning opening and flattening the boxes, we took an entire van full of flattened boxes to the dump. (I had already taken two trips to the dump with empty boxes a couple of weeks ago.)
They came back from the dump, and spent another 1/2 hour filling up the van with anything I could find that was def. trash...no questions from any of us.
How does the garage look now? All the boxes I need to go through from bay 1 and part of bay 2 are all piled together and there is a tad bit of room IN the garage for me to work (I have been pulling things out into the heat and going through them.) BUT the garage still looks like Hoarders live there...
I am completely overwhelmed, but I feel really good about what we got done today. I took a bunch of stuff to OLD THINGS after we were done...Here's the problem there... I have two booths now, and they are FULL. I am making it a goal to go next week and spend a day there cleaning up and consolidating to make more room for everything. Really? I could have my own OLD THINGS if I wanted to find a building and put all the stuff in it and be there everyday...BUT I don't want to do it!
So, that is my story for the day. I have some pictures of the BEFORE in the garage but I am just to embarrassed to post them, so you KNOW they must be bad. Two years ago, I posted tons of pictures of my very cluttered house as I went through and cleaned things up and out...but the garage is so much worse!
It's been a busy, crazy day...garage cleaning, Old Things, buying more yarn, grocery shopping. I am off to watch PROJECT RUNWAY and rest my foot!
Thanks for reading...I would love to hear your stories of decluttering, organizing or hoarding!
Dancingly, Denise