Spring Cleaning: The Garage

Throughout the year we acquire stuff, and a lot of that stuff either replaces other stuff, or just gets put somewhere and forgotten. More times than not, a garage is the catch-all for said stuff for a couple reasons; it is convenient, and it is out of the way… until you need it.

It never ceases to amaze me how right after cleaning out the garage, it looks so neat and organized, and somehow manages to become complete chaos within a month. The main reason is because the garage is usually the first thing we clean out, haul all the garbage to the dump and the donations to Goodwill, and then we clean out the inside of the house, transferring it all back into the recently cleaned and organized garage, thus, starting the vicious cycle all over.

For years, we have talked about either buying or building a shed in the backyard to store the yard tools in, which will free up quite a bit of space. Okay, in actuality, one entire wall in the garage is pegboard and all the lawn tools are hung from that, including the leaf blower and grass seed/fertilizer spreader thingie and the only item not hung is the lawn mower. But still, perhaps having the extra space will allow for a more productive garage that we can actually use. Maybe build a work bench for projects, move all the hand tools onto the pegboard to free up space in the pantry for, uh, pantry items instead of tools, screws and nails.

As luck would have it, my partner’s dad and stepmom are looking to get rid of their greenhouse/shed to make room for their fifth wheel, and because they don’t need it, and they have a two story shed twice the size of it only six feet away. Now, figuring out how to get an 8’x17’ shed from Camas to our backyard is going to be the fun part. I mean, we can easily back it into the backyard, as when we planned our fence we made sure it had two gates, a regular people sized one, and an eight and a half foot one for backing anything into the yard. The only issue is the incredibly tight space issue from the fact that our backyard has a rock wall in the middle of it, and a 10’x24’ deck attached to the house, which doesn’t leave room to maneuver. But, I’m sure if we want it bad enough, we’ll find a way to get it into the yard, and we do want it.

But, until then, we still have to clean out the garage. It seems every year we organize it better than the year before, one time adding two huge shelving units which cut down tremendously on the amount of stuff on the floor, like holiday decorations and camping gear. I do have to say, the best part of this lack of funds situation with me being out of work, is that our accumulation had dropped off dramatically. The only things we have replaced were things that actually broke, like the microwave. Ever seen an electrical arc form in one of those? It’s like it had a miniature Emperor Palpatine in it! However, the broken microwave still lives in the garage, on top of an old cat bed, inside the wheel barrel. Me thinks a trip to the dump is in order, and maybe a trip to Goodwill too.