Jul 9, 2002 4 min read

It was like spending a day in a cave. One of my least favorite chores is reading up the garage. Like many such homes for the family car, our garage is also the gathering place for all sorts of things that we no longer want in the main living area of the house.

In our case, we poured a large house full of stuff into a smaller house about a year and a half ago, which meant much of the junk we hauled down from the mountain east of here ended up as junk in our garage.

We had been able to pull at least one car into the two-car cavern until my lovely wife had a yard sale. In preparing for it, she, my mother and my sister-in-law pulled every box out, sorted through its contents, determined what was trash, what was saleable and what was mine, and pretty much left it spread all over the garage floor.

Well, my wife’s sale came and went and only a minute portion of the things she had collected for sale sold. That meant they had to be repacked into other boxes in order to eliminate the resultant chaos.

Last week, she managed to clean up a good bit of the stuff.

Then it was my turn to sift through the boxes and bags that belonged to me, boy stuff, like tools, magazines, books, etc.

Once that was accomplished and several more large lawn bags were filled with more trash, it was time to reorganize the garage layout so we could once more get at least one vehicle into it.

That’s what I did on my recent day off.

It was about 95 degrees outside, so when I started the chore, I put on a hat and a bandana around my neck to collect the perspiration I knew would flow free and fast. I didn’t open the garage door, opting instead to work under the two bare light bulbs, knowing that whatever cool air trapped in the garage would instantly dissipate if exposed to the outer climate.

“I won’t open the door until I’m finished and I’m ready to take out the garbage,’ I said.

I surveyed the clutter. I surveyed it again. For one or two brief moments I felt overwhelmed. “How am I going to get this place straightened out,’ I mumbled.

I learned a long time ago the best way to start is to start. After you have a game plan in mind. And it took me a little while to figure it out. To me, the job is like a jig saw puzzle. You have all these different shaped pieces and in the end they should create some kind of picture.

Well, I picked a dime up from the floor, probably leftover from my wife’s sale. That was the first thing I picked up but certainly not the last. I moved boxes, emptied bags, tagged stuff that was good and the bad stuff I threw into garbage bags. Within an hour I was soaked but I was moving.

I took a break after a couple of hours to get some lunch and cool off. Despite the closed door, it was still warm in the garage.

I hit it again and this time kept at it until I had an area larger than the one we had before in which to park a car. I also had five large plastic bags filled with trash.

I finally opened the door.

And walked into what I can only describe as a blast furnace.

Glad I had the foresight to keep the door closed, I dragged the garbage to the curb, piling the bags into one big heap. I didn’t bother going upstairs when I finished but just headed straight for the shower. I ran cool water to start and stood there for a couple of minutes.

Later, I enjoyed the first dry moment of the day, thinking about what I had accomplished. There’s plenty of space now for one car and, if I can just get rid of a few more things, there will be room for both vehicles.

Of course, I’m going to have to get myself prepared for a second foray. Like whacking myself in the head with a two-by-four. If I’m senseless enough, I figure I can probably clean the garage again. Or hope for another mild winter and just leave my car in the driveway.

Have a good day.

Jim Pletcher is the Herald-Standard’s business editor. E-mail: jpletcher@heraldstandard.com.