Day 18: If Only It Could Be This Easy
Posted: September 2nd, 2010 | Author: Dariane | Filed under: Daily Updates | 6 Comments »At the end of each day, I post a recap of what happened and what progress I made. I try to be as detailed as possible when tracking the project. Here’s what happened today…
[Again this post has arrived two days late. I need to do better managing my time 
]
Yesterday after officially clearing out half of the garage I pondered aloud if I should work on finishing touches, start on the second half, or to work on a completely different area. This morning I decided to begin work on the right half of the garage. I figured that if it got too hot in the afternoon, I could work on a different area inside the house for the second part of the day.
Man, life’s a beach…
[These are some shells I found yesterday and my poor attempt at a Things Organized Neatly -esque photo.]
Today’s Stats:
Number of hours spent: 7
Supplies purchased: None
Amount spent: $0
Number of (13-gallon kitchen) bags trashed: 4
Number of giveaway boxes: 10 (!)
Number of (33-gallon) giveaway bags: 1
Plus other giveaway items: three paintings, a typewriter, a lawn deer, and a large bulletin board
Progress:
Today I decided to continue on the garage by embarking on Phase 3: the right side. Things were going well during the first couple of hours until a bee made its way in and stayed inside the garage area. Too terrified to work, I took a 30 minute pause inside the house to keep away from the bee and calm myself down. The bee would later return at various times during the clean-up, but I somehow managed to try to ignore it.
I haven’t mentioned this before but I’ve been having more and more nightmares involving household pets like spiders, ants, flies, bees, cockroaches, and rats. I’m also growing paranoid. No bueno.
As soon as the clock struck noon I considered the heat and if I would prefer to work on another room inside the house. I opted against it as the heat was pretty bearable and I wanted to continue what I started.
One of the more surprising results of the work today is that I worked less hours than I normally do and yet I put away more giveaway boxes in a single day than ever before. With 10 more boxes in storage, a small chunk of my day involved me playing PODS Tetris. The theme song got stuck in my head shortly after.
Although I knew at the outset that the right side would be easier than the left, I definitely did not expect to get so much done today. Progress today far surpassed my expectations. Take a look…
From the beginning and end of the day:
And again, this time a view facing the right side:
Here’s a comparison of what the area looked like at the end of Day 12 when I cleared a pathway to the door to the backyard and what it looked like at the end of Day 18 (today). A slight different angle, but you can see the similarities (namely the upside-down Gottschalks bag):
Finally a different angle of the amount of floor space I was able to clear up today:
With this, I went from being 50% complete with the garage to 70-ish% complete. It is indeed possible for me to finish the garage by the end of tomorrow. I can’t believe it.
Extra Stuff:
- I’ve been keeping a small memo pad and pen in my fanny pack for the past couple of days now to log my progress and jot down some ideas. Super duper helpful.
- My mom has finally taken some time to read this blog after I told her of its existence. She approves so far, and I am more than relieved. [Hi Mom! *waves*]
- My sister comes into the garage everyday, stands on a spot I’ve cleared and claims, “This is my first time standing in this spot in years or ever.” Today we laid out bubble wrap on the newly bare garage floor and stomped on it like there was no tomorrow. The garage is the area of the house that has the most floor space as of now. :]
Woohoo!!! You rock!
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You’re getting heroic amounts of work done.
Do you have any ideas about why the right side is more organized or easier? Did things used to be better, or were there fits of organizing, or what?
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Dariane Reply:
September 10th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Haha, I should draw up a chart of my garage colored with a gradient showing the easiest areas and the more difficult! :p
Here’s how I’ll try to describe it…
Obviously, the garage was clean at one point. Gradually it became the point of no return for:
1) items we inherited from my grandparents after their death,
2) stuff from when we first moved into the house,
3) bags and boxes intended to be donated, and
4) stuff we filled in bags and boxes as a temporary fix for cleaning.
[To explain this last one further, if the living room was cluttered a bit with clothes, toys and books and we were expecting people over (this was a LONG time ago), then we'd toss them into a big trash bag and put it in another room or the garage.]
The garage is also used to store items that don’t have any other place–what most garages are used for (e.g., holiday items, sporting goods, etc.)
Most of the recently acquired items as well as stuff that are used most often tend to be near the areas with easiest access: near the door to the garage, the door to the backyard, and along the garage door. Thus, the area on the right side w/ the door to the backyard has most items that are already organized for use.
Therefore, all of the “point of no return” items I listed above that have been there for years and need to be sorted through are concentrated around the middle of the garage and the left side.
Whew that was a long explanation!
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Yay progress!
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Whoo, the progress looks great! Good luck!
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Thanks everybody!!
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