So much stuff

It was that time that no homeowner ever wants to contemplate, the time that we all put off for as long as possible.  It was time to empty out the garage. 

The garage – a space attached to the house with the original purpose of protecting the one and only car that the family possessed but which has quickly became an anachronism and developed into a general store room.  Like the loft or attic, it is a place to put all of those things which you cannot find a use for but which you are sure will come in handy one day.

We knew it was time to attack the garage by the bulging shelves, the completely covered benches and the total lack of floor space.  It had become like an email filing system, we knew that stuff was in there but we couldn’t recall what it was or where we had put it and there was absolutely no order.  It felt like a day-long job but we made and early start and by mid-morning a trip to the waste recycling centre (tip) was called for.  The car was now full of stuff, so much stuff, things that we couldn’t bear to be parted from but by now we realised that they were never going to be of any practical use.

There were the expected bits of wood too short to be of any use, rolls of wallpaper that we hadn’t had on the walls for over a decade, pots and pots of coloured emulsion that had long been painted over two or three times.  There were pieces of laminate flooring just in case any got damaged though none ever had in all the years since it had been laid and there were bits of metal curtain track, broken pipes, metal fixings and fittings from ceiling lamps long since discarded.

But then there were the more interesting things.  Some four year old home brew, an outside Christmas tree long since forgotten, some roller hockey sticks (when was the last time they were played with?), a tool belt, a box of fifty assorted blowouts (the things you blow at parties when you are drunk to make a loud noise), a drum machine, two sky plus boxes with remote controls and a vuvuzela (remember them).

Ah the memories came flooding back with every piece of rubbish that we pulled off the shelf but now was no time to be sentimental.  The stuff had been taking over, creeping into all the nooks and crevices of the garage and it had reached the point where something just had to be done.  It was cathartic, in a few short hours we had managed to clear out so much stuff, some was thrown away, some was given away and some was put back neatly onto the now half full shelves. 

The floor is now clear; our lives are de-cluttered; the garage looks twice the size and almost big enough to put a car in.  We just need to buy some more stuff to fill it back up again.