The Damn Garage

I knew my comment about the garage would get a reaction from Summer. She knows of my harrowing experiences with cleaning it out. I have actually had it clean probably 3 times since I moved in here two years ago. When I first moved in, it was packed almost from floor to ceiling with my parents junk. It had ceramic molds, garage sale stuff, boxes of papers, everything. I spent several days or maybe weeks getting through all of it, but I eventually got it mostly cleared. I shoved boxes of old bills and paperwork and such in my mom's old car that was parked out on the street. Eventually, my dad moved it when it got a notice that it would be towed. My dad had built a nice large section of shelves along one wall of the garage and I've slowly tried to keep the clutter down to a managable size. When I had my free garage sale, I finally accomplished that for the most part, but it's still not clean. I think Mollie has corrupted my dogs. They used to understand the concept of going from the kitchen to the garage via the pet door and then out the other door from the garage to the yard to do their "business." But I think something has happened where they can't seem to get themselves out to the yard and they had turned my garage into their bathroom and it's horrendous. I am not home enough to monitor their every move and with three of them I can't keep up with their habits most of which probably occur at night. So my solution now is to cut off the garage from them. I am going to get a patio dog door that will lead directly from the living room to the back yard. This is what I had at my old house and there was never an accident inside. They prefer going out this way and will wait for me to get up and open the door for them. I am hoping this will solve the problems. Once it's in, I will close off access to the garage and from the yard to the garage.

When I did all the garage cleaning at one point, I also cleared the attic which was full of more junk. I am proud to say that my attic is completely empty except for maybe two boxes. I have been trying not to clutter it up as well, but I think I will put a few things up there just to make the garage space more manageable. My goal this summer is to do a clean sweep of my house and part with those things I don't need and make everything a manageble space.

I guess in order to do all this I'm going to have to get out of my funk and be productive. I'll start with some baby steps. Today's job is to get the kitchen clean. I'm not going to go through all the cabinets yet, but I just need to get it clean. I will report back on my progress. I cannot post again until the dishes are done. So there. I'm really going now. I mean it this time. Really. I do.