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Friday, May 8, 2020

OH WHAT A CRAP-FEST


If you’ve read previous posts, you know how annoyed I get from time to time about John and the crap-fest he left behind for me to deal with. It was Wednesday afternoon when I began to write this. My plan was to spend a couple more hours out in the garage sorting through crap on top of the time I already invested. Just to give you an idea of what I’m dealing with, I’m including some photos as it looks before I go out there to continue organizing.


Prior to my friend Dave coming down to take home those boxes of drawers full of screws, etc., mentioned in a previous post you couldn’t see the window. In addition, the workbench in front of the window was piled high with stuff. I know you’re dying to know what I found in that pile. How about a bunch of sparkplugs…I’m wondering if they’re the ones that came out of the ’57 Chevy pickup when AJ was 16. I also found a wide variety of screws, nuts, bolts, miscellaneous carpentry stuff and other things I have no idea about.


I also found I don’t know how many sets of socket wrenches. I put them all together in a tray that’s now in front of the window. I found lots of screwdrivers that are now housed together, a seriously broken hammer, a good hammer and a whole bunch of electric cords. I wound up the cords and cinched them together with zip-ties I put all the extension cords I could find in one box and it’s on a shelf now.


As I found stuff in boxes or just loose, I put them into a box of miscellaneous stuff destined for either Goodwill or a garage sale. In one of the photos, you’ll see a green cabinet with a bunch of drawers. Today I’ll finish emptying those drawers and adding to the pile of plumbing, electrical, carpentry, etc., materials.

Yesterday when I began on the green cabinet, I became aware once again of John’s passive-aggressiveness. A long time ago, I wanted new cabinets in the kitchen. Instead, John had a nephew of a friend who was in the painting business take the doors and paint them. I did get to pick the color. I also wanted new hinges and, especially pulls. I got neither, but in that green cabinet were more than enough pulls to replace all the ones in the kitchen. I may even have found some hinges, but I’m not sure. The kicker here is John preferred and installed a certain type of doorknobs and switch plates…these pulls would have matched perfectly.


It's now Thursday and I didn’t get a thing done yesterday as planned. Well, I did actually, but that was just moving stuff around so the men who come to mow and edge my lawn could get the lawnmower through the garage. So, today, while Haley is behind the fence and in the chicken-yard eliminating overgrowth of the wild stuff in the greenbelt that loves to invade my garden I’ll continue sorting and sifting.

By Saturday, I want to have the various boxes and containers on the table in the middle of the garage. My sons are coming over to cut up the old hot tub and remove it from the deck. I’m hoping they’ll have a few minutes to look through the crap on the table when they finish the hot tub and decide if it should be saved for my garage sale, taken to Goodwill, or the most likely choice put in a recycle or garbage bin. Maybe there’ll even be enough room for them to pull down a few boxes from the attic while they’re here.

On the other hand, I still have to go through the one small red tool chest, the filing cabinet, the larger red tool chest. There’s no order to whatever is in those containers. I glanced at the contents last fall and there’s no rhyme or reason as to the contents. I think John just opened any old drawer or cupboard and put whatever he had in his hand in there. Dave joked about wanting to borrow a tool and how John would search hither, thither and yon, and occasionally come up with whatever he wanted to borrow.

Since I’m such an organized person, I find it really hard to understand how and why John couldn’t have put some sort of thought into a system so that everything had a place. I have a friend whose husband passed away some time ago. When she began to sort through all the tools, she couldn’t believe how many hammers, screw drivers, etc., he had. She said she thought that every time he needed a hammer, he couldn’t remember or find where he’d left the hammer he used last. So, he took a trip to the hardware store and bought a new one. 
There are buckets and boxes out there as you can see from the photos. I have no idea what’s in them, so my sorting and sifting will continue for some time I think. I just wish I had a better understanding of what might have some value and what doesn’t. Maybe on Saturday I’ll get a better idea of that when the boys look at what’s on the table. Maybe I’ll even get lucky and they’ll want to cart off various tools, screws, nails, whatever. If not, I’ll at least get some direction for my future days in the garage. 
These last two photos are some of what's overhead in the rafters...oh boy, I can barely wait. 


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