March Room of the Month - The Garage

First of all, thank you, everyone, for your very kind comments about my March decluttering.  You were all very encouraging and congratulatory, maybe a bit incredulous (a possum skeleton?), but, not judgmental.  I appreciate that very much.  I don't consider myself to be a hoarder but, I readily admit to being a keeper-of-stuff!

Cleaning the garage had been on my To Do List for a very long time.  Years, in fact.  Well before it got to the stage it was in at the beginning of this month.  But, I postponed doing it because it was a big task and, every time I set out to do some cleaning, I felt overwhelmed by it.  It was too full of things that I wasn't quite sure I wanted to get rid of.  It was too messy, too dirty, too difficult, I didn't have the time, there were other things I should be doing inside the house or in the garden, too hot, too cold.  I am not making excuses; I am just describing how I felt. 

In the meantime, additional things got put in the garage.  When there was no room on the shelves, the items were set on the floor.  Then, one of the shelves tilted forward (a screw had come loose and fallen off) and after one of the small earthquakes we have from time to time, the stuff sitting on the tilting shelf fell down.  I probably left it where it fell until I could fix the shelf, except, I didn't fix the shelf.  So, the stuff sat on the floor and additional stuff were dumped on top of that stuff.  In addition, there was a small hole in the side door through which the garden cats and possums got in from time to time.  They usually found their way out, too, but, at least one possum didn't!  But, the cats would sometimes run around and jump on things and they knocked things down which didn't always get picked up.  I eventually got someone to replace the door so the animals couldn't get in - that was in November 2019.  Unfortunately, that door is already warped from the rain!  Obviously, the door was not meant for an outside door!  

Mary-Lou posted about "silent to dos" and "tolerances" and, as I mentioned in my comment to her, I have very high levels of tolerances when it comes to mess and clutter.  There is a reason why my online name is Bless My Mess!  

Finally, when Eileen asked me if there were any projects I could do outside (I had been trying to explain why I was letting some house projects were going undone because I didn't want workers in the house during the pandemic unless absolutely necessary, such as when the furnace needed to be replaced) and I successfully cleaned out the garden shed in February, I decided that I will clean the garage in March.  It was going to be my March Room of the Month.  I started out spending 15 minutes a day, just removing one or two items to declutter.  Deciding what to declutter and what to keep took most of that time!  Oh, the dialogs I held with myself over keeping and tossing! I posted some pictures after I had got started, here.  

Right Wall - Then

Right Wall - Now

Not much of a difference at first glance, but, the shelving units and the cabinet top have been scrubbed clean and all the large cooking pots (yes, they are used, especially when having large gatherings, jam and chutney making, etc.) and one or two baking pans have been moved to these two shelving units - easy to access from the side door.  I have not gone through the kitchen cabinet unit, yet, or the totes in the corner (Christmas decorations and some old files).

This is the left wall, my "wall of shame" which I didn't show in the earlier post because I felt too ashamed to show it; I am taking a deep breath and posting it now:

Left Wall - Before (March 12, 2022)

I spent half the month just steeling myself to deal with this mess.  The other half of the month was spent working on it! I really, really wished I had some help with this part of the cleaning (it would have been accomplished much faster with some help, too), but, I managed to do it, a little at a time.  These are the pictures I took while the cleaning was in progress:

March 14, 2022 - The lilac vinyl table cover 
is covering the window air conditioner

March 21, 2022

March 22, 2022 
Some of the donations ready to go

March 25, 2022

March 26, 2022: Tilting wall shelf
to the right of the yellow basket
removed

March 26, 2022: Focus on the empty
lower shelves

And at the end of the month:

March 30, 2022

I asked M to put the box with the Christmas tree on top of the metal shelving unit.  It had been stored on the floor between the Christmas totes and the old kitchen cabinet on the opposite wall.  I realize it makes the top of the shelving units look very crowded, but, I am trying to get things off the floor, to make it easier to clean the floor and to minimize the opportunity for critters to get inside the boxes! 

March 30, 2022: Empty Shelves!

I might take these shelves down, too, eventually, but, I'm keeping these up for now.  

I haven't finished decluttering the garage, yet, but, I have brushed cobwebs down from the walls, washed the windows, washed each and every shelf and cleared quite a bit of the clutter.  I am now in the process of cleaning out the files and the newly ordered paper shredder should help with that!  

Still to do:

- Go through boxes of files and papers
- Go through the old kitchen cabinet and decide what to do with all the craft supplies stored in there
- Decide if I want to continue to keep the kitchen cabinet
- Find a better place for the stack of resin chairs (we use them in the garden in the summer)
- Go through the stack of plastic drawers
- Go through the Christmas items (might wait until closer to Christmas to do that!)

I am debating whether to continue with the garage as my room of the month in April, too.  It is, most definitely, a work in progress!