Didja Ever Just Get a Wild Hair?

Have you checked out the Blogher/LG Text Ed area, where Moms are discussing teens and texting and how totally crazy it gets?

Did your brain ever hold on to something and just not want to let it go? I happened to have caught an episode of Hoarders - just a minute or two of it and boom! My brain decided that I needed to make sure I never became one.

And then I walked into my garage. And died a little death.

It wasn't Hoarders level, by any stretch of the imagination - but I definitely could see the potential and so, after I took the kids to school  on Monday, I decided to clean out the garage.

My husband was off and so I woke him and roped him into my escapade of fun. Part of this adventure was self serving - I have a LOT of serving dishes/pitchers/platters/extra large baking dishes that are stored all over my house. I wanted to create an area that I could place everything, in order to have it all centrally located.

So I started, and my husband questioned me. Did I REALLY want to do this? Wasn't there ANYTHING I'd rather do? Like, say, have a root canal. Or file my toenails. Or clean the toilets. Nope. So he came out and we worked. At 11 (?!?!), seriously, 11, I woke Nik up and had him start to work with us.

I may have forgotten to mention that it was raining. Well, no, raining isn't technically an accurate term. It was POURING. Off and on. I didn't care. I was determined that I was going to get this garage cleaned once and for all. We called for a pick up of the old dryer - I have a new one, thanks to the Mom Central Frigidaire Test Drive Team - and the old one has been in the garage for 6 months. Along with a dead big screen tv and about a mountain load of junk.

We cleaned and tossed, purged and filled the garbage cans - and there was still more. I got the BRIGHT idea to take some of the extra garbage over to my mom's house, for her cans weren't full. And I filled the van with bags and bags of trash and stuff for the thrift store and drove away in the barely damp sprinkle of rain-

to drive into a deluge like nothing I'd expected. The road was flooding, the traffic was crawling - and a SANE person would have abandoned the effort, would have given up - but not me. I kept on and made it to my mom's and got out of the van - and the wind whipped and the rain drenched me and I cursed at my own stubborness and stupidity. I fought with the garbage cans and blotted the water from my nose and cursed at my own stupidity. I battled the tree branches and wondered why I had to be so stupid, so brainless and SO stubborn that I just HAD to clean out the garage.

I sloshed back to the van and drove home, hydroplaning twice in my misery of saturation. We cleaned some more, got bags of thrift store stuff loaded and my hubby vacuumed the entire garage.

And now it looks GREAT.

And it BETTER STAY THAT WAY.

 

Comments

[kyooty]

Come do mine?

[addy]

ummm - do you do attics too? Just askin...

[Jodie]

Good for you! I get those ideas at the worst times. For instance, cleaning out the front hall closet, literally minutes before my in-laws are due to arrive.

[Tricia]

I bow to you, oh amazing supermom. I have no motivation right now at all, other than the motivation to get this baby out soon. And if I pay you with a wonderful vacation to the sunny Gulf Coast of central Florida, would you come do my garage?? I'll even throw in a rental car and beachside inn room too....

[amie]

I so need to do my closet. The worst thing about walkin closets are they seem magnetic to clutter!

[Elizabeth]

I so totally need to do this with my garage and craft closet. I hang onto things thinking I'll get around to selling them on eBay or Craigslist or have a yard sale or might need it someday. None of which has happened or will happen any time soon.

[Pat]

I refuse to watch that Hoarder show. I have 30 years worth of my own stuff; my Mom's stuff that she gave me before she died and some of my Dad's stuff that people are trying to get me take now that they are cleaning out his house.

I look around and feel like I am a "Hoarder Apprentice." With my total body arthritis, the notion of cleaning just depresses me!

[Deborah]

Good for you! My plan is to attack our garage this Saturday. I've warned the kids and hubby and am expecting whole family participation. Wish us luck!

[Brandy]

I'm in awe that your hubs and Son helped! Mine? Would have found something else to do. I do get moments like that, every Fall. *g* Hope your Garage stays that way!

[Kait]

I can't watch those hoarding shows. I walk in to a cluttered room and my skin starts to feel all crawly. Of course, this doesn't apply to the laundry room. That one can just keep on getting more and more cluttered and I'll blissfully pop in to pull some clean stuff to wear out of the dryer and carry on my merry way.

[Emily C]

If you were to die tomorrow, your husband and children would be so grateful.

I'm trying desperately to get my mom to clear all the garbage out, and donate the useful stuff that she doesn't need; because if something happens to her my dad won't touch it--and it would fall to me. Not something I'd like to do while grieving.

Maybe that's a weird way to say it, but good for you!

[UKCraftySal]

You've got fantastic determination and staying power! Bet it looks great.

[Christal]

Ok - I have to inject -- BE REAL!

You know it won't stay that way. Just enjoy it and know that now that the big battle was fought, you can just do it again every once in a while and feel good about it again. I have 28 things on the "At Home" side of my weekend list to do & 12 on the "Out & About" side... And at 2:23 I've done 2. So, I'll just add, you were my sanity break today. I've already cried 3 times and am on the verge again. Thanks for being here.