Accumulation of six to eight feet expected

My husband and I are in the throes of cleaning out our Casa Novelchick and Chasing the Fluency God. My OCD having been what it has lately, any sort of accumulation or pile of stuff will send me over the edge after a day. So I am excited, excited, excited that this is happening. I haven't been this happy with something since Nair. It's odd the things you keep and odder the places you keep them. Oddest still is your rational for doing so. I should mention that all of this is for Rob's Workwife. Since her husband passed away recently she's been trying to keep busy and she loves garage sales. Along with our help, this is going to be the mother of events.

Anyway, I decided to start with our guest room closet. I mean it's not even a walk-in so how much stuff could it have in it? I viewed it as a warm-up. I thought, maybe a garbage bag of seasonal clothes that we haven't worn in ages. HAHAHAHAHA! Apparently, when we moved from our little house in Buckhead to this house basically...we were in a panic. I believe we threw everything hither thither that didn't seem to have an obvious home into Rubbermaid crates and off we went. Oy!

First I looked through the hanging rack. I thought we were using it for out of season coats. Apparently a bunch of clothes I hated and should have gotten rid of ages ago but felt bad about getting rid of since they were expensive had decided to hold a convention in there. Ann Taylor black sheath dress. I wore it once to my grandmother's funeral. I look like a rotten turnip in the photos. And yet, there it hangs. I'll never wear it again. I can't even stand to LOOK at it but I feel terrible about getting rid of it since it was SO expensive. I looked at the dress a long time and then came up with my mantra. Do I want a dress I'll never wear again or do I want the space and the money? Money and space won every argument.

Turnip Dress: be gone from my sight!

In short, the only things hanging in there now are one ball gown, two cocktail dresses, Rob's graduation cap and gown and winter coats. Into the sale pile went cocktail dresses, evening gowns, evening bags, scarves, suits, blouses, sweaters and a butt load of maternity things. Next, the top shelf. Our wedding photos. Keep. Curious George beach towel. Keep, according to my husband but why was it in there? What possible good is a beach towel doing us in a guest closet? Various financial and accounting college textbooks. No keep. Tons of reference books from the early nineties on sports, jobs, history and other topics. No keep. All went into boxes. And now the floor section. I started pulling boxes. I won't scare you with the details but here is partial list of things I found and DIDN'T KNOW I OWNED.

An aquarium (NIB)
A massive crockpot (NIB)
Multi-colored glass decanter set (NIB)
Camcorder from....1995ish and tri-pod
A water fountain (NIB)
Several dozen notecards and postcards bought on trips all over the world with intentions of framing them
Enough computer paper (including seasonal paper, photo paper, transfer paper, invitations and enevelopes and resume paper) to open a Kinko's

We filled up four trash bags, two boxes, all the things in original boxes and about twenty hanging things from that ONE CLOSET. I am ashamed. Deeply, truly ashamed.

Then I moved into my daughter's room. I have kept everything she's worn since I brought her home but I didn't think it was THAT much stuff. I mean she's LITTLE how much space could this stuff take up? Five bags of clothes later I felt wrong. I kept about twenty small outfits that I would like to have on hand if we do have another baby but everything else? I would rather have the money and the space. I even packed up a box of things for a friend.

This filled up my husband's SUV entirely to the point where I thought we might have to strap that baby on the roof. So, one load down. One closet and one nursery. One Master bed and bath, kitchen, library and garage to go. I'm glad we have beer in the house.

Yesterday, we decided to take a stab at the garage. Our garage is a place that God has forsaken. Only Satan could possibly dwell in a place so horrid. Dead plants, mildewed stuff, old clothes, files, bags of soil, fertilizer, tools, Christmas decorations, rugs, left over carpet, hats, coats, shoes, chairs, boxes and boxes and boxes. I sat looking at a piece of pegboard on the wall with tools on it for a bit. I remember when we first moved in that Rob and I put it up with such a sense of excitement and achievement. We both come from homes of messy garages. We vowed that our garage would alway be neat and organized. We would always park our cars in it. We would keep it so clean we could eat off the floors. We planned to buy mats to put under the cars so no oil would touch our pristeen concrete. And now....evil lives there. And who knows what else. We started going through stuff. A partail listing of things found includes:

A copy of my husband's high school transcripts
Reciepts for payment on the chapel we married in
An entire box of VCR tapes of assorted play-off games
Zoo Atlanta staff shirts ( I haven't worked there in years)
Crystal Bowl
Leopard cell phone holder
More baby clothes
9 boxes of Christmas decorations
Stuffed animals
Wreaths
Gas cans, oil cans, paint cans, wallpaper scraps, carpet scraps and scraps of anything we've ever assembled
Fabric swatches
A wagon that apparently we have tossed "stuff" in to the point that it looks like a miniature version of the Sanford and Son truck
Silver serving trays
Chafing dishes
Boxes marked "garage sale"

We gathered up roughly four garabage bags of soft goods, one of Misc. and several crates of books and VCR tapes, cassette tapes, etc, a filing cabinet and other assorted goodies. We're still debating about the high chair. We haven't even begun there really. This was just one four hour stint.

While mortified that we allowed this to happen I have to say that there are fun parts. Sometimes I'll open something and it's like seeing an old friend. I found a picture of my father and I in New York one Thanksgiving. Or all the cards I think my husband ever sent me including a love note written on our wedding day. Rob found a photo of a high school baseball team he was on. We discovered movies that we loved but haven't even thought of in years to put in our Netflix list. Who knows? Eventually a car may get parked in there. Hell, eventually we may FIND a car in there. Until then, we keep plugging away at it. Because we'd rather have the money and the space.