A Long Time in the Making ...

On the subject of our garage, in recent years its been more a storage area than a place to park cars.  Early winter a year ago we were able to make some significant progress at getting it cleaned and organized.  Alas, it didn't last a real long time.   

Part of that is because Himbeere acquired a second motorcycle, which, of course, could not live out in the weather, so the trailer had to move out in order for the bike to be in the garage.

We actually had done a pretty good job of keeping the garage clean and clear through the winter, at least as clean as we had been able to get it the previous fall.  Taking the trailer out and putting the second bike in still left the garage feeling pretty roomy and clear up to that point. But then a couple of things happened. We both retired, which involved bringing personal belongings home from our workplaces. It is amazing how much you can accumulate over the course of most of a career working at the same place. We didn't want to leave it all behind so a whole bunch of stuff came home to be sorted and gone through at home. In addition, Himbeere moved out, into his own place, which left us wanting to remodel his bedroom into a guestroom. All that remodeling meant moving stuff out of his old room, both cleaning it and emptying it while we worked on the remodeling. And at the same time, we still wanted to continue the process of cleaning up the garage.  So we worked on the remodeling and sort of cleaned at the garage as the opportunity presented itself.  As is often the case, when you do some cleaning it doesn't stay clean and so after a while, when garage looked like we had lost ground.

But we spent some time out there, cleaning and rearranging and pretty soon it looked much better.

After another trip to the dump and a trip to Goodwill to get rid of more stuff, we were ready to tuck the trailer back into the garage and wait for warmer weather.  Actually, in the grand scheme of things, at this point we were ready to start tackling the shelves.  All the floor space was pretty much cleared at this point, but we still need to go through and do some cleaning and reorganizing on the shelves.  

Unfortunately, at the same time we were trying to get the garage clean we continued living in the house, using the garage.  Within three months, the garage had become a cluttered mess again.

In our effort to conquer the mess in the garage this time we decided to hang the kayaks from the rafters in a better way, that made them easier to get up and down when we wanted to use them.

Schwarzbeere helped us put up the new hangers ...

... and pretty soon both kayaks were hanging and out of the way.

Once again we had beat the mess in the garage back and had it clean again.  There was still a lot of stuff out there, more than we could fit in the space available.  However, it was another step in the right direction.

But again, in just a short time (this time only two months), it was a mess again.

Once again, we got out there and got busy cleaning it up.

And again we got it cleaned up and looking in pretty good shape.  This effort was part of the semi-annual garage shuffle, moving the lawnmower to the back and the snow blower to the front, getting ready for the change in the seasons.

But, now that winter is over and it's time for the next semi-annual garage shuffle, to move the lawnmower to the front and the snow blower to the back, the garage was a mess again.

So Monday morning we were out there again, moving the lawn mower up front and the snow blower to the back, cleaning and rearranging as we went along.

As we worked on shuffling things around it occurred to me: this is the cycle of our lives.  It is so because this is a space we live in and use all the time.  That means the garage will always accumulate clutter which will always need to be cleaned and straightened, just like the rest of the house.

We took the trailer out of the garage several weeks ago because one of the kids needed it to move some furniture.  So in the process of moving the snow blower to the back and the lawnmower up front, we again did a bunch of cleaning and rearranging.

That freed up the space lost while the trailer was out so that we were able to put the trailer back in the garage and keep it out of the weather, where it was getting beat up.

So now the trailer is in, and the lawnmower is up front with the snow blower in the back.  Everything is ready for the summer and the mess that is sure to accumulate by fall when it's time to do the semi-annual shuffle again.  It appears this is a never ending cycle we are bound to live with.