There is a city-wide garage sale this Saturday, and I thought it would be a great chance to get rid of all the junk in our house so that if we ever do sell, it will be a lot easier to move. And since the inside of the house has been cleaned top to bottom, that just leaves the attic. And the attic is huge. It's 30 feet long and about 8 feet wide, and it was full. Until a couple weeks ago, you couldn't even make your way to the back, but during our city's "trash day" we got up there and cleared enough trash away so that there was at least a path down the middle:
It doesn't look that bad, I know...but it's 30 feet of overlapping items, tons of bugs, and boxes I was scared to even open. Then yesterday, I attacked with full force. One at a time I pulled out boxes, bags, and loose items (many with spiders and other critters attached and running for their lives) and started sorting. Where I once had about 5 or 6 scattered boxes of old school work and 2 treasure chests from my childhood, I now have one plastic bin clearly labeled "memories." Trash accounted for about 30% of the clutter once I had consolidated things:
Our"sell" pile kept growing and growing and growing, also. Here's the final sell pile:
It was a hot, sweaty job that required a lot of pushing heavy things around, hoisting bins up and down, and freaking out
every time I got trapped in a spiderweb. I had to keep climbing up there and pushing things toward the front (while hunching over because it's easy to hit your head on a
light bulb up there...
TJ and I have broken a few bulbs on our heads that way and it hurts.) Luckily,
Topher took some long naps that gave me uninterrupted time to work. But I'm proud to say that I turned all the stuff in the attic into 7 manageable, labeled bins. There are no loose items gathering dust and bugs anymore, and I know
exactly what we own and where it's located. Here's how it looks now:
There is a TON of empty space now...probably about 12 feet of totally open space after the last plastic bin, and another 12 toward the front. I am so addicted to projects like this, I should do it for a living. It was exhausting, but it feels SO good to be so obsessively clean and organized. :) And the hardest part wasn't the physical nature of it, it was just making about a million decisions in a row.
Keep or toss? Sell or store? Do I really need this? Will I want this in 5 years, in 10 years? If I open that box, will I find another spider nest? Am I brave enough to reach back into that corner? How much do we really use this item? Do we want to lug this into our next house? Mentally, I was beat. But I'm so happy because whenever we sell this house, moving is going to be a much more manageable task. Now all we have to do is throw the bug bomb up there like a grenade and we'll be in good shape.
--KC
It doesn't look that bad, I know...but it's 30 feet of overlapping items, tons of bugs, and boxes I was scared to even open. Then yesterday, I attacked with full force. One at a time I pulled out boxes, bags, and loose items (many with spiders and other critters attached and running for their lives) and started sorting. Where I once had about 5 or 6 scattered boxes of old school work and 2 treasure chests from my childhood, I now have one plastic bin clearly labeled "memories." Trash accounted for about 30% of the clutter once I had consolidated things:
Our"sell" pile kept growing and growing and growing, also. Here's the final sell pile:
It was a hot, sweaty job that required a lot of pushing heavy things around, hoisting bins up and down, and freaking out every time I got trapped in a spiderweb. I had to keep climbing up there and pushing things toward the front (while hunching over because it's easy to hit your head on a light bulb up there...TJ and I have broken a few bulbs on our heads that way and it hurts.) Luckily, Topher took some long naps that gave me uninterrupted time to work. But I'm proud to say that I turned all the stuff in the attic into 7 manageable, labeled bins. There are no loose items gathering dust and bugs anymore, and I know exactly what we own and where it's located. Here's how it looks now:
There is a TON of empty space now...probably about 12 feet of totally open space after the last plastic bin, and another 12 toward the front. I am so addicted to projects like this, I should do it for a living. It was exhausting, but it feels SO good to be so obsessively clean and organized. :) And the hardest part wasn't the physical nature of it, it was just making about a million decisions in a row. Keep or toss? Sell or store? Do I really need this? Will I want this in 5 years, in 10 years? If I open that box, will I find another spider nest? Am I brave enough to reach back into that corner? How much do we really use this item? Do we want to lug this into our next house? Mentally, I was beat. But I'm so happy because whenever we sell this house, moving is going to be a much more manageable task. Now all we have to do is throw the bug bomb up there like a grenade and we'll be in good shape.
--KC
Looks great! Wanna come do my garage?
ReplyDeleteluvs, aby
yes, actually, but i'm pretty brutal. if you weren't standing right there, most of your stuff would get thrown away. :)
ReplyDeleteI needed you when I cleaned my classroom a couple of weeks ago. It was exhausting! But, you are right that it feels so much better when it is done.
ReplyDeleteI'll hire you! I'll play with Topher here and you work! Come spend a week...maybe we can make a dent in the back room! Topher is so adorable in the bath! Lots of love...mom
ReplyDeleteI just want to say how impressed i am. I know how daunting of a task that can be, especially when it involves creepy crawly creatures. It looks amazing, and i bet it feels SO amazingly good to have that done. Moving day will be a breeze now. I wish I had the guts to clean out an attic that i knew had spiders living in it. GO KC!
ReplyDelete