Clean Sweep

For some reason, watching The Biggest Loser doesn't entice me to put down the Twinkie and get off the couch, but the TLC show "Clean Sweep" makes me want to call Dumpsters-R-Us and splurge on my very own 40-cubic-yard dumpster to fill to the brim with all of the stuff that I spend my life picking up off the floor and moving somewhere else in my house. The STUFF is driving me INSANE!!! Truthfully, I probably don't have a big enough mess to get on the show...I think some of those people probably have some sort of hoarding disorder, but we still have a LOT of stuff.

If you're an avid reader of this blog you'll know that Adlani came home from school sick yesterday, and I didn't want to risk more accidents at school today, so I kept him home. Since I had a dentist appointment, a lunch date, and also had to go to my office, Ben took the day off from work and stayed home too. Last night Ben said, "Just leave me a list." After 1 nanosecond of consideration I said, "THE GARAGE!" So I came home from the dentist and found the entire driveway filled with everything from our garage (just like the show!!). It was an impressive amount of stuff. Ben spent all day, without sustenance (it's still Ramadan), sorting through the mountain range of miscellaneous possessions.

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Here are just a few examples of what's in our garage along with the tools, ride-on toys, Christmas decorations, recycle bins, lawn furniture, snow tires, and 16 bins of kids' clothes that they haven't grown into yet:

~ A porch swing that I bought on eBay which was supposed to go on our porch but never got put together. We have since demolished the porch to build our family room and have no place to hang the porch swing.

~ 15 yards of denim that I was going to use to recover the turd-brown couch and chair at camp, but which the mice have chewed to use for bedding. The couch and chair still look like turds. Big ones.

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~ An old trunk that I bought at an auction in 1992 with plans to refurbish. I guess I'll do it when I retire. Does anyone else see a pattern here?

~ Size 16 basketball shoes, a safe with no key, and books on obsolete software that our friend asked to store in our garage about 6 years ago. He has since moved again and remarried. I don't think he'll miss it...although I am curious about whether there's anything in the safe.

~ For those of you that remember Aliya's 4th birthday party when I decorated the garage (the last time it was clean), some of the decorations were still hanging from the rafters. Her 6th birthday is later this month.

~ The cassette versions of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Learn French In Your Car. I don't speak French, I'm probably not even marginally effective, and I no longer have a cassette player.

The garage looks great now! 10 points to Ben!!! Next up...the basement!