You’d think I would have completed it before now, but it was really Mr. Carter who inspired me to take on a new summer project.
“Can we park the car in the garage anytime soon?” he asked.
I’m afraid I am one of those people who get into a bad habit of treating the garage as an extra room. That would be okay if I had always intended my garage to be an extra office or craft space, but that’s never been the case with me. My garages inevitably become a storage unit while my car is left outside.
I’m not sure how the piles start. My guess is an impromptu cleaning out of the car, an activity that has to be done in a rush as you tell yourself this discarded collection of random items will get organized soon. Then when you have to clean out the car again, you just pile those items next to the previous one.
Then there are the holiday decorations, which you also tell yourself you’ll get organized at some point. That’s hard to do when you continue to buy new decorations every year, and again pile them up on the old ones. I mean, you haven’t decided what you’re going to keep or not since you can just decide next year. That’s of course after you get those new decorations.
I promised my son I would get the garage cleaned out before the end of summer. I also knew the only way I would fulfill that promise would be to set a deadline. The garage has been this way since he was very young, so scheduling a donation pickup was the pressure I needed. When did I begin the tough process of digging in the dust and actually getting the donation ready? Despite signing up over a month in advance, I waited until three days in advance of their arrival to begin.
I spent hours sweating it out in the heat of the garage, cursing my way through the cluster of items. I initially made more of a mess while separating the things I wanted to keep and struggling with the items I chose to give away, slinging boxes and garbage bags along with way.
And what were some of those discarded items? A bag of stuff my son and I brought back after traveling to see my siblings…last year. There were the baseball and battling gloves my son used during his baseball career…that ended three years ago. Cleats and shin guards from his first year of soccer…two years ago. Leftover team snacks, from both sports, that had long expired. Clothes and plushies were piled along with gift bags, tissue paper, and the random highlighter or pen.
In the end, I successfully shoved the remaining items along the walls far enough to get the car inside. I’m sure I’ll organize those piles at some point, just as long as I don’t let them spill out and shove my car back out into the driveway.
