Mike, Jill, Lucy, & Wubie!

A while back, I got the urge to tidy up the garage. I actually made a fair amount of progress and was able to institute some sense of order in a place once chock-full of chaos and old t-shirts. However, “tidying up” is ultimately a futile endeavor if, at its completion, one still has a bunch of never used junk (and old t-shirts) lying around sucking up space.

That’s where TIDYING UP 2: LETTING GO OF CLUTTER comes in. Yep, this is indeed a very big step for many of us.  However, it’s something that absolutely has to be done (especially if one lives in a small condo) less one becomes cozy with the idea of being a slave to useless possessions and junk.

Selling things is a great way to start letting go of stuff. When sufficiently inspired, I usually have a few things up on Craigslist or eBay. However, selling things can be a slow process, not to mention full of hassles.

This is where donating to charities comes in. It’s a great way to get rid of lots of stuff very quickly and with a minimum of trouble. Also, the idea that others in need could benefit from my junk is very appealing to me. Here’s a pic of a bunch of stuff Jill and I donated just this week:

Yep, just looking at all those bags full of old clothes, toys, appliances, etc., going to a place where they can help people makes me feel good inside. It also puts less strain on the ol’ condo and garage.

Alas, after getting rid of all that stuff to free up some room, I went out and got a shiny new gadget (that will no doubt be a piece of dull unneeded clutter one day.) Below is a pic of my new phone, a Droid Incredible. Hopefully, I’ll get some good use out of it before it ultimately begins making acquaintances with the denizens of the garage.

Over the last year or so, our little garage has gotten a little messy, full of boxes piled on boxes, all crammed with random stuff. This in itself is bad enough, but to top that off, we had no idea what was inside said boxes unless we actually opened ‘em up and started rooting around.

It was the worst, especially when you were looking for something important. This video, taken in November, 2009, shows off some of the mess:

Garage Days Revisited from Mike C on Vimeo.

Jill knows me well enough to know that when things start getting messy and unstructured, I start getting antsy. Well, I must have hit my maximum capacity for messiness, because I spent much of the weekend (and part of the week) straightening out the garage.Though it’s still a work in progress, it’s a lot better than what it was.

When I first started cleaning up, I noticed that many of the cardboard moving boxes we’d been using for our junk were starting to break down. The cardboard was beginning to warp and sag. I decided to replace them with 18 gallon plastic tubs.

Though it took a while, during the transition from old, soggy cardboard to shiny, new plastic tubs, I made sure to inventory all of our junk and keep the data in a Google Docs spreadsheet.

Though our wireless network initially didn’t extend to our detached garage, I created a second wireless network with an old Airport Express access point I had and placed it as close as I could to our garage. Luckily, it worked out and I now had wireless access in the garage!

It’s so cool. I can bring a laptop into the garage and use Google Open Docs to help keep the garage in order. I share the spreadsheet with Jill so that at any time she can see if something she needs is in the garage. If she sees something she wants in the spreadsheet she can grab it herself or just say, “Hey, can you grab me that Diddy Kong Racing cartridge? It’s in bin #27.”

Yep, it’s a very satisfying feeling indeed when your techy, geeky, and Felix Unger sides can all meet and play nice.

BTW, this is our 400th post. Can ya believe it? 400 posts about cats, babies, and tv shows. In case you’re interested, here are some past ‘milestone’ posts:

• 300th Post
• 200th Post
• 100th Post