This is my garage. Clean right? It hasn’t always looked this way. In fact, it is safe to say that even though it has been cleaned out various times over the last 8 years that we’ve lived in this home, it has NEVER looked like this.
Despite 97 degree temps a heat index of 105+, I decided to take my father up on his offer to come over and clean my garage. It was literally hot, hot, HOT!
I new going into the day last Saturday that the only way to beat the heat was to get up at the crack of dawn. I was up and out working around 5:30 a.m…..not my normal Saturday morning wake up time. I am sooo glad I did, though, because once the sun came up it was miserable out.
My dad had pulled the workbench out of his shop in Nebraska and brought it down for me. Now, instead of him being at my house and saying, “Do you have a (fill in the blank with a tool)?” and me replying, “Yes, but…” followed by an often fruitless search for said item, I can now say, “Yes!”. And when he asks where it is at I can reply, “How should I know, you’re the one who put everything away in the workbench!”. 😉 Just kidding. I put some of it away, and I am pretty sure, after using things over the past week, that I pretty much know where everything is. It is so wonderful to have a place for everything, and everything in its place.
The cabinet hanging next to the workbench was something from my grandfather’s house.
It took much more time to put things back into the garage then it took to get everything out, mostly because I was trying to figure out what I was keeping and what I was throwing away and I wanted to make sure that I put things away in some semblance of order. Once I reached a certain level of heat I figured there was no reason to hurry, just plug along and do it right the first time.
The BIG GARAGE CLEAN resulted in some items for an upcoming garage sale and a trailer full of trash:
Our garbage man comes tomorrow so I spent a couple of hours this evening transferring everything from the trailer, bundling up the wood, cardboard, etc, into neat piles, bagging up trash, etc. We paid a bit extra to have them haul off this load but I wanted to makes sure it wasn’t too unruly. I don’t want them leaving anything behind!!!
I’m very thankful my dad offered to help or this would remain undone. And it feels wonderful to have the garage this clean. It is nice to actually be able to open the door to the Charger all the way when getting out of it instead of just squeezing out of it. Update: Mary reminded me that my mother and Tori also helped out for awhile and I really appreciate what they did as well. Thank you both!!!
Next project: making the basement look this good!!!
What about you, any big spring or summer cleans that have happened? Any plans?
I managed only about 90 minutes of outside work last Saturday, so I’d be impressed either way, but since I saw the garage in person yesterday I can say that it looks amazing.
I’d ask if your dad is available for non-family miracles, but I’d have to quite a bit of cleanup before I could let him see my garage.
It was a long day! I finished up and came in the house at 3:30 in the afternoon!
That’s great Carl! There’s nothing like a clean garage to make a man feel quite at home 🙂 It’s great that your dad helped out too..nice to see a father and son so close after some of what I see at the hospital..it seems to be the norm after a while :/ Oh, and I’d love to be at your garage sale 😉 I’m sure you have some cool stuff!
We have had three major moves in the last few years, so that really helps with de-cluttering, LOL. It seems like most of our moving boxes have always been filled with books, though!
I’m glad you had help with that huge job of cleaning out your garage. Good luck with the yard sale and with the basement.
Take care!!
Valerie: Whoa, 3 moves?!?! I am so sorry. I imagine it is a good way to declutter though, as you’d be sick to death of packing boxes and just want to get rid of stuff. Never books though…although they are always the heaviest boxes! Thanks for the ‘good luck’. I’ll need it when it comes to the basement.
Chris: It is nice to have that relationship. You know that I see the same kind of thing at my work.
Not sure yet if the garage sale will have any cool stuff or not. Most of my cool stuff are things that I cannot imagine selling at a garage sale. I have sold a bunch of cool stuff on Half.com, ebay, and Amazon though. Made about $700 last month! Hope to do even more in July.
boy I could have used your dad to help me unpack !!!
Being female I do believe that everyone should “deep clean” at least every 2 yrs.. if no other reason then to find things you forgot about and to remind you of things you have. but thats a female thing.
Wow – I am impressed. I wish my garage looked as tidy as yours. Well done on cleaning it, good luck with keeping it clean.
Wow, Carl. When you take something on, you really go for it! And as Vivienne said, good luck keeping it clean. That is the really tough part.
You ask about my cleaning projects? We had a force-clean two weeks ago. When four inches of rain fell in an hour, the sewers in many neighborhoods backed up into basements. Of course, I was one of the lucky ones. I went down in the dark Friday morning to empty the dehumidifier in my bare feet, and thought, “Hmmmmmmmm, how odd. Why is there water up to my ankles?”
This required a major clean, with LOTS of things thrown out because of (nasty) water damage. Floors had to be bleached, along with everything non-porous that was on the floor.
Now, everything is packed in nice, plastic bins. We were lucky, some basements flooded a couple feet and destroyed furnaces, washers, driers, etc.
That’s my summer clean story. Now, at least my basement is ready when it is time to move!
How is Mary? 🙂
Qugrainne: Yuck! that does not sound like a pleasant experience in any imaginable way. I am glad you were one of the lucky ones, although it seems odd to call that ‘luck’. Hope you didn’t lose anything important in the stuff you had to throw out. I plan on attacking the basement in a similar way, putting things in bins that we end up keeping, because if our basement flooded it would be a disaster!
Mary is doing really well. She seems to be back to her old self other than being a little sore and still getting tired if she pushes herself too hard. Thanks for asking.
Deslily: It certainly is no fun packing and moving alone. Sorry we couldn’t be there to help. I like deep cleaning every so often for that very reason you mention: it is fun to rediscover things.
Vivienne (and Qugrainne): I don’t think my wife will let me mess it up again, so its not so much ‘luck’ but the threat of violence in my sleep that will motivate me to keep the garage clean! 😉
Carl and his dad did a super job. His mom and Tori even got into the act for an hour or two. I moved one or two things, but I wasn’t much help being in recovery and all. Now if I could just get Carl and Tori to clean the basement before I get released to lift heavy items. 🙂
That is right, thanks for reminding me Mary. Thank you mom and Tori for your help as well!!!
Great planning Mary !!!
Garage looks great. I’m so glad it’s clean so you can find your tools better to loan me. 🙂
Carl,the garage does look good, doesn’t it? I know Dad enjoys helping you kids and he likes to make things look neat and tidy. It was terribly hot tho’!! What a great feeling knowing that your hard work paid off!! See you tomorrow.
Yeay, stupid me decided that a way to raise money for the Jan-Ai Scholarship Fund was to have a HUGE YARD SALE. There is sooo much stuff from Jenn that she was saving and you know the rest, than I thought okay, we’ll sell some of her photos and so on. Maybe throw in some of my stuff, and Bob’s. Went up in the attic (hot) and found things that we both packed up 19 years ago (2 households) and its growing up there. Of course, people are now bringing me there junk (opps “stuff”) and when all is said in done, hopefully we will have some moola. It doesn’t happen till 7/24-7/25. Fingers crossed and I am convinced I have enough for at least 5 more years.
Good job on your endeavors but maybe you should wait till its a little cooler to tackle anything else.
I’ll be moving soon. It’s always interesting finding stuff in boxes and drawers and thinking “Why on earth am I keeping this?” It’s a great time to purge. I love throwing stuff away. I can’t believe the amount of junk that just accumulates and at some point I thought I needed to keep.
I agree with Stuart. I love throwing things away as well.
When Susan’s folks died, we ended up buying their house and we inherited her Dad’s workshop. They had been living in this house since 1961, and it’s stuffed to the gills with his pack rat hording. One of my before I die goals is to clean it out, maybe even get it as clean as your garage. But it hasn’t happened after three years of living here. The other day a lady friend of mine was chattering on about cleaning her garage and how much fun she had getting rid of stuff. I told her about my workshop and she told me she wanted to clean it out. So maybe it will happen.
Looks great Carl. If your Dad has nothing to do and wants to drive to Portland Maine, I can feed him a lobster after he helps me out too.
To deslilly, I don’t know what it is about the female genetic material. My stepdaughter believes she should deep clean every few hours. I can be at her house, playing with the grandchildren and she will be mopping and waxing floors and removing imaginary cobwebs.
I happen to like cobwebs; they are the field of dreams of spiders.
Peter: *laughs*, I’ll let my dad know! Of course, if fresh seafood is the payment you can forget my dad, I’ll come myself!!! I like nothing better than fresh seafood. If you like cobwebs, you should come tour my basement. I haven’t sprayed yet this year and it is starting to look like I’m working on a haunted house for October.
Jim: Its odd, but sometimes cleaning out things for others can be a lot of fun, while doing it for yourself is just a chore. I think it probably is the adventure of digging through someone else’s junk!
Stuart: It really accumulates quickly, doesn’t it? I suspect I’ll have many, ‘why in the world is this still here?’ moments when we start tackling the basement.
Jeff: It is fun, isn’t it?
Cynthia: It sounds like a lot of work, but I’ll definitely cross my fingers that you’ll raise a lot of money, especially since it is for such a great cause.
Mom: It really looks wonderful! And still does after week 1!
Jeff: Borrow away! I can find stuff now!
There must have been something in the air – my dad cleaned out my pool house this weekend (thanks, dad). I should have taken before and after photos like you did and then I could have my own blog post instead of merely commenting on yours!
It’s winter here – perfect weather for clearing a garage!
David: I wish it was winter here. Those hot temps are coming back in a couple of days and I hate it!
Ejly: I miss lots of photo ops for the blog as well….like I didn’t take a ‘before’ photo of this project and I really should have. Although I would have been embarrassed to have people see what my garage looked like before the clean! 🙂
I totally understand what you’ve been through… but for the whole apartment ^^’
I’m moving out and with the intense heat of the past few days it has been awful doing boxes, what to keep or not, etc. Let’s say that in seven years here we have unexpectedly impressive piles of things to sale, give or throw away 😉
Yup! In between trying to sell the family house, moving into my new condo and seeing a slew of doctors, I’ve been wicked busy! Pretty much settled into the condo now, all the big stuff is here, now it’s just food, pot & pans and clothes from the house to move. Wish me luck!
I’m hoping to finish clearing out the last bits of clutter from various corners, left over from our move. Other than that, lots of reading and resting and hopefully exercising! Watching my 63-year-old father compete in a master’s pole-vaulting event… cool stuff.
Wow. Garage looks great! Can you come over and help me with my place?
Seriously, fantastic!
While there’s nothing like the feeling of organization after it’s done, it’s the getting to it that’s the hard part. Congratulations! Now, would you have any tips for my make up drawers? I like to use my lipsticks for the estimating jars at school…
wow! i’m very impressed you did all that! i know exactly what its like putting off a big job like that and what an accomplishment it is when you finally get around to it.
the worst is that feeling of every year promising yourself that you’ll do it and even setting yourself a deadline, and then seeing each year passed without you actually having done it. so its really great that you tackled that huge job! you must be so pleased! 😀
My goodness. There are few things that get my pulse to speed up than a really beautifully cleaned up garage. I can’t wait to see the next thing you tackle.
Carl,
I seem to have lost your current email details. Please get in touch with me asap. Thank you!!
oh—and your garage looks great. Plenty of room to make something…