Cleaning up the garage - Part 1

Saturday, 26 February 2022

Today was the big cleanup day. We had a 6m skip and Paul's trailer which we filled and emptied 3 times over.  The skip is now packed to the brim and will be replaced with an empty one sometime next week for another session - we didn't get through it all.

We did make pretty good progress though.  With almost all hands on deck we sorted all the tools, recycled much of the wood, took a huge load of metal to the tip, cleared lots of surfaces, and eventually, we were able to spot the floor in the garage.

Along the way we found some historical items and curiosities including Paul's tricycle number plate - regulations must have been tighter back in the old days - I believe any old toddler can ride a tricycle nowadays.

we also found an old example of the pineapple and orange juice which was the only liquid Denny drank until she was about 17. I remember hauling a few of these 3 litre cans up the 2km long & steep hike through snow up to a ski lodge so Denny wouldn't die of dehydration during a week long college ski-camp. 

Amongst the curiosities was dad's collection of pencils - if  dad couldn't even bring himself to throw out pencils this tiny, it's not surprising the garage ended up in the state it did.

We also found a poster roll that must have been mis-delivered to the house which was intended for Blockbuster Video in 2008. It contained about 50m of advertising material for Monsters Inc. Sorry Blockbuster - we'd drop it off with you but.. well I guess it's too late. 

Along the way Jamie collected and sorted all the tools. They have gone back into the shed for now, but we will try to thin them out a bit next weekend when we return for part two.  

It was a big day and I'm exhausted now - as everyone probably is.  It was hard yakka but in a way it quite fun with everyone helping (at least for the first few hours!). All the kids sorted, swept, hauled & dragged stuff like champions, without a whisper of complaint (that I heard).  Jon wrangled the trailer like the expert that he is and Denny managed to participate without being overwhelmed by the desire to get out a vacuum cleaner. Mum provided us with pizza for lunch and vanilla slices for afternoon tea, and Dad very stoically didn't attempt to fish too much out of the skip or grumble too much about the  process. Well done all of us!