the garage

My garage is crippling.  I do not understand how people live without a garage.  I really don't.  I have two friends without garages and it blows my mind that they can live without this space.  Yet, I hate our garage and sometimes wish we did not have one, because then maybe we would not keep so much crap.  It fills up faster than our kitchen trash can! 

A year or so ago, a friend offered to come build some shelves in our garage.  We have hanging shelves and three store bought shelf/rack things, but it was not enough.  He and my husband built a workbench and four HUGE - deep and tall - shelves.  This was awesome!  The shelves are incredibly useful.  But, when they were done building, they took all the boxes and crap and piled them up on the shelves.  So, it was not long before we cluttered the floor of the garage once again. 

In May, I switched jobs.  On my last day, I had an early morning exit interview.  Instead of going to daycare to pick my kids up early, I used the nice weather as motivation to clean out the garage.  And I did amazing.  I went through every box, organized all the shelves, the workbench, etc.  I even swept the floor!  The only things left were a couple boxes of my husband's stuff for him to sort through and all his crap that I piled on his workbench.  He was never a big fan of this project and never bothered to go through his stuff.  Now, those few things are buried under a work table, all the tools required to put in the hardwood floors (project:  complete) and do the baseboards (project:  not even started/can't afford), a couch, and who knows what else!  We will probably find quite a few trash bags hidden in random spaces when we get around to cleaning out the garage again. 

I understand why we have all the crap we have, and am not complaining (my sister will get the couch soon, and the tools will go back after we have time to do the baseboards).  But, it has not even been six months and the garage is as bad, if not worse, than it was before!  This is crazy!!!  I need a day off to clean and organize...luckily Veteran's day is next week.  I think I'll use that daycare we pay so much for and focus on organizing my house!