AuburnChick's Adventures

This is our first weekend home as a family.  I had big plans for us.

Cleaning.

I told the Chick children not to make any plans for Saturday morning.  We would be spending time in the garage.  It’s been terribly neglected for quite some time…dumped on and trashed.

Rockin’ Rooster tried to sleep in.  I let him…until 9:00, when I allowed the dogs to wake him up with kisses…a gentle start to a fierce day ahead.

Mr. AuburnChick was none too pleased when I roused him out of bed.  I had not informed him of my plans.  He had gotten in late last night and was looking forward to getting up in time to watch Auburn play.

What a spoil-sport I was.

That’s what wives are for.

As he grumpily walked into the garage, he asked me how I planned to clean it.

Plans?  I was supposed to actually have a concrete plan?  Great.  I had envisioned a clean garage, with no thought as to how to obtain it.

I told him that we would be taking everything out of the garage.

Do you know how much stuff you acquire during 19 years of marriage?

A lot!

Granted…some of it is in the attic…a room I was not about to tackle today…but at least half of what we own was packed around the two vehicles sitting outside.

Soccer Chick and Rooster were discouraged.  I was excited.  I like order in my life.  It’s the only way I can function with so much going on.  I could hardly wait to get started!

You should have seen the stuff we pulled out into the driveway/holding area.  I had amassed quite a collection of boxes.  I sell stuff on eBay around Thanksgiving each year (the best time to get the best prices for your stuff).  Last year, I remember having a hard time finding boxes, so apparently I didn’t want to find myself in the same situation.  I think that the problem this year will be that I won’t be able to find enough stuff to sell to fill those boxes!  A downside to having this many boxes around is that you get these nasty, long bugs all over the place.  I’m not sure what they are called, but they remind me of the bad dude on Monster’s Inc — kind of flat and really fast.  I think they feed on paper products.  Mr. AuburnChick got the kids so freaked out about them that they wouldn’t touch anything they were running around on.

Lovely.  Another excuse to make me do more of the work.

I wound up throwing out most of the boxes.  I’m proud of myself, although I shouldn’t be surprised.  I am not a packrat.  Everyone else in this family is, though, which made getting rid of things, at first, hard.  The longer we went, the more we wanted to be done, and pretty soon, we were throwing everything out.

The next door neighbors sauntered over about halfway into it.  They thought we were moving.  Our entire driveway was filled with stuff.  We should have had an impromptu yard sale.  Who wouldn’t want to buy a few deflated soccer balls?

Another thing that is taking up a lot of space is plywood.  We have plywood because we live in Florida…close to the coast.  A few years ago, we bought a bunch because a hurricane was bearing down on us.  Being so organized, I have each piece marked with which window it goes to.  We have a lot of extra pieces.  Hey, we paid for it.  Waste not, want not.  Plus, as I’ve recently discovered, it makes a good deterrent for animals that try to escape under fences.  We reorganized the wood…no easy feat.  The stuff is heavy!  We moved it back and forth…sweeping behind it and then moving it back…marked pieces on one side and extra pieces on the other.  My hands are very sore.

Once we got the garage swept out, it was time to put things back.

Sigh…

I was struck by how much it is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.  Everything needs a good place.  My goal was to be able to exit the car without having to suck in my breath.  We threw out more stuff as we tried to find places for everything.  We consolidated boxes and stuck a couple of things up in the attic.  Boy do I dread cleaning that place out one day.  Maybe during the winter when it’s colder.

Anyhow, after three hours, we couldn’t stand the sight of each other.  But, the garage is clean.  There’s extra space beside the cars.  And I now have a place on the walls to hang the retractable clothes line I just bought…another story regarding this will probably follow soon.

So, if you’re looking for a new way to spend time with your crew, try mine.  Togetherness…AuburnChick’s Way.  Your family will love you for it…just as mine loves me (and which is why I’m sitting alone in a room right now).

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: cleaning, family, garage |