Vacation Adventures 4: Mom's Garage

One last thing we did in Minnesota, before coming home to Oregon: Andrew cleaned Mom's garage, with help from David, Robert, Sarah, Mom, and me. Sarah and Mom helped hugely by taking the children swimming at the splendid Shoreview Community Pool and exhausting them with pleasure.

Actually, it was pretty easy. The garage was mostly full of trash that just hasn't been taken that final step (a high step) -- To the Dump. Or, in the case of some items, to GoodWill or recycling bins.

So it was simply a matter of breaking down boxes and tying them up to go to the Cardboard Recycler; pulling out still-usable stuff for GoodWill; separating the hazardous waste into a pile for special dumping (e.g., paint, oil, pesticides, fluorescent lightbulbs); and finally, stuffing everything else into garbage bags for easier carrying ability. I vacuumed 10 years of blown leaves, dust, dryer lint, and spiderwebs -- the only time in my life I've enjoyed vacuuming. It was very satisfying.

We also organized the space. All the treasures, including the things we thought would be precious to any of us regardless of whether they are actually of any value (e.g., the candle sconce Dad made in woodshop in high school) are in the shelves behind the boat (and in the army trunks). Dad's tools -- what's left of them after being sorted through by Rob and Andrew in previous years, and David for those that are still in use -- are in the shelving unit on the other side of the garage. Some tools that were Grandpa's (both grandpas) are over there, too. The cleanup left a shelving unit open, now reserved for David's use.

Easy it was; it did take all day, however. In the end we were stuck with everything all bagged up, but nowhere to go. You can't (legally) dump trash at the landfill after dark on Saturday night, and the Cardboard Recycling bin at the library was full. In order to save Mom and David from becoming the Clampetts of the street, we had to put everything back into the garage at the end of the day, which was disheartening. Existentially, Andrew and I felt we left the garage in the same state we found it -- the stuff remained one step (one steep step) from where it is supposed to be: Not There.

(In the photos, you can see some of the 30 or so trash bags stacked at the back of the boat. There also is a pile of extra gutters and long gardening stakes under the boat.)

Since we left, Mom and David have dropped off the charity items, and rid themselves of the cardboard. The trash is a different issue: waste containers (aka. dumpsters, which are conveniently dropped off empty and picked up full) are a lot more expensive in Shoreview than in Portland (about $178 compared to our $85). One slow but cheap option is to put a bag in the regular waste pickup every week, where they have room anyway. This isn't trash that rots, so that should work fine, but for us in distant Oregon, it remains an unfinished task.

Note: Mom says that Paul next door has his dryer vent hooked somehow into a bucket of water. It doesn't blow the lint into the garage, rather bubbles it into the water pail (which must need to be dumped and refilled regularly). We couldn't figure out how to set that up -- maybe someone in Minnesota could look into that. It'll save on vacuuming when next we clean out the garage, 10 years or so from now.