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TIP 1 OF THE WEEK: Identify items that may be useful for a new purpose.
TIP 2 OF THE WEEK: Give yourself a few moments to feel emotional over long-lost items. Then move on.
Now that I’ve removed nearly everything but art supplies from my garage, I’m ready for Phase 2 of purging what was an overstuffed three-car space.
With a gleeful rub of the hands, I started delving into my art materials. First up was a huge storage bin filled with art books. Easy! I’d cleared a garage bookshelf earlier, so I placed the art books on those shelves. Now I might even use the books. I sure never rummaged through a dark bin to find, say, a tome on techniques or Impressionism just because I was seeking inspiration.
Then I tackled the materials with which I actually create art, mostly acrylic paints, the first of many boxes of acrylic paints. Many of the paints are a decade or two old. How’d I do? Let’s put it this way: I now have colors all over my polished nails, and I still have a few similar boxes to comb through.
And I still have a few similar boxes to comb through.
More progress. I threw out a small shelf table. I have two more, both on rollers; this one isn’t, so I’ll never use it. I cleaned dried paint off the tops, as well off the surfaces of palettes. I removed my daughter’s early paintings from my painting wall, where they’d hung for years. All her work is in one area now. The next time she visits, she’ll have to take or toss it all.
I had a great deal of fun when I reached some of my earliest paintings, among them a portrait of my mother that I made in my late teens. I remember her good attitude as she posed, seated, because I was trying to recreate the way the old masters did portraits. My brother has always said she looks miserable in that painting. I prefer to think she was deep in thought.
I even came upon a fantastic painting by Bob Schiffmacher, my first husband and father of our talented daughter Simone Schiffmacher. Out it goes, to Simone. Let her store it in her garage.
Uh-oh. Art and art supplies aren’t the only items left in my once super-messy garage. My son, a recent college graduate, still has a mini-refrigerator, an exercise trampoline and a Weber charcoal grill in here. Off they go to the good-riddance pile. He can leave them on the curb or give them away—this week. Then again, I may keep the mini-fridge and turn it into a wine cooler. Why not turn trash into treasure?
Pool chemicals? Turns out I had a bunch in the garage. Off they go.
My garage is almost cleaned out. You’d think that would make it easy to find the remaining items, right? Then how do you explain my dust pan? It is MIA. I have looked everywhere, and so has my husband. It is gone.
I did find one surprisingly valuable item: my Rolodex. Remember those paper collections of all your contacts? Now that I’m selling real estate, I need to reach to every person I’ve ever met. Here are scores of names. What a wonderful source for leads. I’ll find them all on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Now that’s progress.
