Garage of Shame

Anyone who has ever had a dog or cat has probably had experience with the cone of shame. It is that wonder plastic collar with cone extension fastened around the beast’s neck which prevents it from apply mouth to whatever portion of the anatomy is injured or recovering from surgery. The animal, at least dogs, look totally and completely embarrassed to be seen sporting such an unfashionable statement which attests to their inability to leave that bit of injury/surgery/stitches alone.  Cats just look annoyed; probably to the extent of applying claws to the perpetrator of the cone.

We have the garage of shame. You have heard me complain and moan about it now for about two years. Our household shipment (thank you Uncle Sam) arrived in Fall of 2014 and was loaded mostly into the garage as the house was under renovation at the time. I actively avoided that particular location for as much of 2015-2016 as was possible. Meanwhile, we had things in and out of storage as the garage needed sealing, lights and new doors. Unfortunately (for me) it has been complete for a significant number of months and I still don’t have the place organized. Screaming, yelling, threatening and whining haven’t worked on me – why would I think that those methods would work on anyone else?

Admittedly, there have been a couple of spurts of organization. For example, after my shelves were built into the one bay I managed to unload a lot of boxes and sort a number of others onto the shelves. Then Dani & Alex moved here and contributed their fair share to the garage box chaos. Right now they don’t have a lot of room so most of their possessions are in the garage.

This is where I started this morning –

The first being the left side of the middle bay and the second being the right wall of the last bay on the right.

Noah and I put in a couple of hours during which we were able locate the loom which will be picked up later this week, unpacked a few boxes completely and located a number of items which have been missing since – well – when they were packed in Germany. Such as my Canon AE1 (film) which I had figured on being permanently lost, some scarves, clothing items and a number of cookbooks. George helped me haul the easy carry items up to the house.

the loom ready to be picked up, other things sorted

Dani and Alex accomplished close to a miracle turning their chaos into

this neatly stacked cluster of boxes

which replaced the boxes badly placed and damaged by the movers in the second picture above.

This is real progress and perhaps I can actually both get the place organized and distribute all the things which would really be happier in other people’s lives.

Cross Stitch

I finished the alternate 363 this evening

30 Jan 2017

which wasn’t that hard once I had access to the rest of my threads and accomplished a bit more on the other 363 fractal

20 Jan 2017

 

Tomorrow’s forecast is more of the same.

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About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
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18 Responses to Garage of Shame

  1. Cat says:

    I think we should have shown you the shed(s) – mind you I have succeeded in removing a bit more of late…

    • Holly says:

      Actually, I think you did. It was pretty full, but not all that disorganized as I remember!

  2. Chere says:

    Thank you, Holly- I’ll be keeping these images for some time, I think.
    Brad on occasion gripes about our garage which, after all, holds both vehicles at the same time with a generous 2-3 ft. clearance on all sides of each.
    His “creep” is a near match for mine, neither is growing, & when pressed we agree that patio furniture Must Be Stowed during certain weather.
    Any progress in the garage this year will be from me… don’t hold your breath.

    • Chere says:

      I never thought he would clean the garage – tote the furniture – yes. Toss out army stuff? Ha!

  3. Helen says:

    Huge effort!

  4. Holly says:

    with so much yet to go!

  5. Cheryl says:

    Gorgeous!

  6. rg says:

    Hah! We have an entire house of shame!

    • Holly says:

      you did notice I didn’t post the studio in the house? or our closet? or the laundry room? Small steps here!

  7. Carmen says:

    I give you applause for the garage work. As you know, I still have the basement from Heck. Gladys has some stuff to store, and I have a fake Christmas tree I do NOT want to push into the attic, so this is giving me a poke to get down there and clean out another corner. Necessity is the mother of de-hording?

  8. Vicki says:

    Definitely when you are done you are going to NEED a cruise!! It will be well deserved!

  9. Alison says:

    Wow. That’s a huge amount of work—well done!

  10. Pat says:

    I love the 363. Gorgeous lines and colors. Especially the lines.

    I have the house of shame. And the garage of shame.

    Nibble, nibble, little mouse, and maybe someday I’ll get cleared enough to move out!

    • Holly says:

      Thanks for the compliment on the cross stitch.

      We used to joke that you never completely unpacked from a move – you had to keep boxes still packed as seed for the next move.

      Either that – or the moment you were all set – it was time to move again!

  11. Pat K says:

    You probably really hurt the garage with your emotional detachment and refusal to engage.

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