Stuff, Stuff, Stuff!!

Where does it all come from? Today I tackled a couple more areas – the hall closet and the basement.

I don’t even know how we crammed all these coats and jackets into the space we had!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there are still a bunch of coats actually hanging in the closet!

 

 

At least we have cleaned out some areas…

 

the basement (still needs some cleaning up, but most of the stuff is out of here anyway)…

 

the office…

the bedrooms…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One week from today we have an appointment with the realtor. And only 51 days until our first camping trip!!

Getting More Off the List

It’s been another one of those productive weekends.

Yesterday Harry worked on another project for the fiver – hooking some speakers we were given at Christmas up to our sound system.

He did an awesome job! They are attached to the wall of the basement, but they have extra speaker wire attached to them, and are easily taken down and placed on a table below the basement door. All we have to do is turn on the speakers in the bedroom, and we can listen to music outside.

Today my sister Denise and her family came by. The kids stayed at our house while Denise and her husband Mike went into Albany. We had fun hanging out in the fiver, and playing a few games. It was a little cool, but we turned on the fireplace and we were nice and cozy.

 

We have almost finished cleaning out the area above the garage. The piles in the back are going to Harry’s kids.

 

 

The stuff in the foreground is either being given away or going to the garbage if it’s no good.

 

 

 

While they were here, Mike helped Harry bring up a ping pong table that we had in the basement. It is the last really big piece that we needed to bring up the stairs. The basement looks bigger now that it is out of there. Only a few more things to pick up down there and the basement will be all cleaned out.

Phew! I can’t believe the weekend is over already. We pack as much as we can into these two days each week. But the good news is that there are only 54 days left until our first camping trip of the season – then we will have some time to relax.

Making Progress

We have been continuing our work out in the garage.

Look, there is a floor under there after all!!

 

After I got home from work last night, we worked for awhile trying to organize all the stuff out here into piles.

This whole pile of stuff is garbage.

The challenge is getting it into our garbage bin. It will probably take at least 5 or 6 weeks to get rid of the majority of it. The small pile of cardboard will go into the recycling bin – that will be gone next week.

We are planning to get a dumpster in August. Whatever we have left at that point will go in there, along with the remains of a ramshackle shed that we have in our back yard and intend to take apart within the next month or so.

And this is the main area left to go through – the shelving in the back and Harry’s workbench. Most of the larger items in this picture will be going to family members.

I am so looking forward to having an empty garage! It will be a few months before we get to that point, I think. But we’re definitely making progress!

Yay – Freecycle! :)

I discovered Freecycle a couple years ago, and don’t even remember where I first heard about it. But it sure has been a godsend for us this year. This morning I listed several items as available for the taking….

a set of outside table and chairs…

 

…a large suitcase

 

 

 

…a set of camping dishes

 

 

 

 

and three sets of modular shelves…

Tonight, just a few hours later, they are all gone except for the suitcase! I may end up reposting it, if it doesn’t go this time, but I have never had something that didn’t go on freecycle.

And, one of my co-workers came by and took our deck bar and chairs off our hands as well…

The stuff is just marching out of the garage!!

It was another gorgeous day, and the leaves are coming out like crazy.

 

This is the view from the fiver’s front step…

 

 

 

In other house news, I called a realtor whose name we have been given, and we have an appointment with her for two weeks from today for an initial meeting and market analysis! Six months left until our house goes on sale!!

And One More Time

So, now that the weather has been getting nicer, we have started to tackle the last remaining area that needs to be cleaned out – the storage area above the garage.

I wish I had thought to take a picture before we started because we have already cleaned out a bunch of stuff.

If you can use your imagination, this pile of cardboard used to be A LOT of boxes (with a corresponding pile of Styrofoam innards).

 

And our recycling bin for this week is filled with as much or more cut up cardboard.

 

 

 

This pile is destined for the garbage bin – but it will take several weeks to get it all taken away.

 

 

 

 

And this is what is left upstairs to still be cleaned out.

 

 

 

I keep saying that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s going to be a lot brighter when all of this STUFF is gone!

More Stuff Gone and Modifications

Today turned out to be another beautiful day. I’ve started my blog post with that sentence a lot lately, but that’s ok, I’m not getting sick of it!

Gretchen and Schaun headed for home shortly after lunch, and we decided to take advantage of the nice day to get some things accomplished.

We had a pile of clothes sitting in the garage waiting to be taken to the drop box, so we loaded them all into the car. You’d think with all the clothes we have gotten rid of so far, that we wouldn’t have anything left to wear! But that is not the case – we definitely had too much in the clothes department.

Bye, bags of clothes!

Next on the agenda (after washing the truck) were a couple of modifications to “cat-prep” our fiver. The first one serves another purpose too – to make our door a little more toddler friendly.

 

You can barely see it on here, but there is a sheet of plexiglass waiting to be cut down to size.

 

 

 

 

Fit it in over the screen…

 

 

 

 

and no more worries of cat nails getting caught in screening (or little ones falling through and down).

We lose a little air flow, but we think it’s worth it.

The second modification was the one I mentioned a few days ago. We did think about buying one of those pieces of furniture that had a space for a litter box. But they seem a little big for the amount of free space that we have, especially with the cat tree. And also Harry wasn’t thrilled about the thought of the cats doing their business right next to his chair.

So today Harry got to the project of creating a space for the litter box. First he disconnected the subwoofer that was in the cabinet.

He added a length of speaker wire that we picked up at Home Depot…

 

 

…and threaded it through the space where the tv is, over to the other side.

 

 

 

Next he threaded the speaker wire down through a hole he drilled, and then reconnected the subwoofer.

 

 

 

We put a rug underneath to catch any litter that might go outside the box.

 

 

 

And the litter box fits great in the space.

With only one door open, the litter box is much more hidden.

 

 

We also brought the rug out that was in our living room in the house. I think the colors meld really well.

 

Our living space is starting to come together!

Sunny Day of Play

 

Today was another picture perfect sunny day. We weren’t doing too much around the house today though, since we have some company this weekend.

 

 

We are so enjoying the nice temps, although today was still a jacket kind of day.

 

 

 

 

Crookshank was also enjoying the nice sunshine.

 

 

And of course, to end the day…BARBEQUE!! (Chicken this time)

Wow!

Wow is just about the only word I can think of to describe this weather.

The grass is getting green, and my tulips are coming up. And our temps for the upcoming week look just as nice – we even have several days of 70s forecast for next week. (The average high for today is 43 degrees.) We have turned our heat off for the time being. Who knows whether this will last through the rest of March and into April, but even if it cools down at some point, we are saving bigtime on pellets every day that we don’t have to run the stove.

 

 

We have been enjoying the nice temps immensely, and have been doing a lot of our cooking outside. Today was our third time using the bbq within a four day period.

 

 

 

I have been having a great time moving things into the fiver, and getting organized. I love baskets, and they are coming in very handy as I decide where things are going to be placed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is so much storage space!

 

 

 

Our house is starting to look a little empty, ummm make that….very empty.

An Awesome Day

Today was another one of those all-around really nice days! Both Harry and I were excited to get outside and start organizing in the fiver.

Harry started in the bathroom, switching out the small fan that came when we purchased the fiver for a Vortex fan. We had picked it up yesterday at the repair place. It has several speed settings, and you can reverse the fan direction.

 

I spent the day moving stuff in. We brought a scale down to the garage, and we weighed everything before we found a home for it.

 

 

While I was organizing inside, Harry was organizing outside. He took everything out of the basement that we already had in there, and weighed it. Then he started moving more in, and getting things arranged the way he wants them.

 

He also found a great spot for our foldup tables and griddle in a storage area over the batteries.

They fit great, and with room to spare.

 

 

 

 

 

After a great day puttering around the fiver, we ended it with a yummy steak cooked on the barbeque.

 

They sure look good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

and I love the view from my spot…