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| Our garage has at truck and an SUV parked in it and all this is a small part of Bob's Domain. I don't touch it. It makes Me Crazy. |
For four months a 6-piece stereo system purchased 30 years ago has been on his work bench,
Waiting for him to take the 40-year-old one down from the shelf and put the 30 up on the shelf.
See this? see the home-made box with legs and lid?
Bob sat it there Oct of 1989 and doesn't even know what is in it. It Moved when we moved.
It makes me CRAZY!
He keeps everything, even broken stuff.
He has 6 watches that don't work in a drawer in the bedroom. At least I can't SEE them.
Inside is my OCD self and Most of the time I don't say a word about the garage, I think it though.
I know how to prod him into doing something. Start doing it myself.
Sunday AM, I set up a card table at the end of the driveway, hug a sign on it that said Free Stuff.
And Bob said what are you doing.
I said I am sitting all the stuff we haven't used in YEARS out there for free to get rid of it.
There were WORDS! that ended with him shouting, I want that!
I answered, help me carry the microwave off the bench on the front porch, so you can paint the bench.
I also said for the nth time, let's just put the bench out there.
It was like I poked him with a cattle prod.
He grabbed the microwave, carried it out and I carried two old Computer Monitors and sat them down.
A lady stopped and said FREE????
Yes, all three items went in her truck, and she drove off.
I started madly carrying things out and people were taking them as soon as I sat them down.
(note: monitors' are e-trash and it is 25 per monitor to get them recycled. they both worked well)
While I recycled STUFF that was piled in the computer room, he climbed the ladder and took down the old stereo, and put the new up and the last things on
the Free Stuff table, were 2 40 year old speakers and the radio/tape player that had been on the shelf since 1989 and never been cleaned or touched.
Everything was gone but those 3 items
I said no one will take them. If they are there tomorrow we will toss them.
By 12 Noon the table was empty and I brought it inside and placed in the closet and said,
Wow! someone took the Junk Stereo.
Before you ask, I do not like yard sales and refuse to sit out there all day trying to sell things. I always just donate to a thrift store but they have gotten picky and none
of the items were things they would accept.
22 comments:
Our Goodwill accepts almost everything! Except baby equipment and old tires. I bet you feel so much better now!!
Yup, free stuff at the gate or on Freecycle is the way to go. I got a bit fed up with freecycle because lots of the replies lacked basic politeness and you have to sift through that to find someone who at least sounds decent. At least at the gate you don't have to make decidions about who gets it; the 'first come' principle deal with that.
Here in Greece stuff is freecycled out of our skip sized rubbish bins (or beside them). xxx Mr T and F
Well done. My hubby is like that too but it changed a bit when we moved. He threw a lot of his beloved old trashy possessions out and sold a lot of his tools. Now our garage doesn't have too many of his treasures but they are building up in his study.
Instead we have stuff in our garage that belongs to our youngest daughter who lives in Melbourne. We had to bring it with us when we moved. I was not happy. When they come here they fly and so she hasn't been able to take her stuff with her. It has been with us since she left home thirty years ago!!!???
Yep, yep, yep!! This sounds like our household. Bud is the packrat!! Save everything..."they may come in handy someday". Yep,yep, yep!! I hear 'ya.
Yeah for you, Sandra, on not only clearing out stuff but getting Bob to help as well. When we cleared out my late mom’s home we did the same and out things by the curb for Free and all went. Luckily, we were also able to donate other household items. I am with you on not wanting to do a yard sale or flea market. We have done both and will not do either again.
Putting a free sign on things is the best way to get rid of them. My neighbors frequently do it and someone always comes along and snags things up. I put an old mower out by the street one time. I didn't even bother putting a sign on it. I figured someone would come along and take it. Sure enough that evening my neighbor came over and asked how much I wanted for it. I told him if he wanted it, it was his. He fixed what was wrong with it and is still using it.
Way to get Bob moving
Hello
Your yard sale sounds like it was successful. If you do not use an item in years, why keep it. My hubby put out an old lawn mower with a free sign, it disappeared quickly. We are supposed to have bulk trash pick up twice a year now, for some reason they missed the first day of collection. Take care, enjoy your day and happy weekend.
Good on you! That's how the tall bookcase in the office came to live with us in Arizona. Gives a whole new meaning to the term, 'Kick it to the curb.' You know, Victor (blogger in the UK) recently posted a story about a free radio being ignored. Not until a price tag was affixed and then it was stolen. I wonder if people are suspicious, if something's free/too cheap that there's something amiss.
Hari OM
Hoorrraahhhhh for decluttering!!! Well done Bob, for taking up Sandra's prompt. YAM xx
Z=Zany
That's a good idea. I wouldn't have the nerve to do it with my hubby looking on. He would say...get rid of your own stuff! hahaha! But how great that someone else wanted it all and it's out of your way now. Who doesn't like FREE! Well done!!! Enjoy your day!
Roger's shop is so full of stuff...jeremy is supposed to take a lot of the bigger items. Has done took some. I am like you...once I decide to get rid of something I want it gone.
WOW that would make me crazy too have to look at too.
I don't do garage sales. I either put it on the curb or the Urban Miners to take free or donate to N. Raleigh Ministries Thrift store.
Hugs Cecilia
This is brilliant! Mark and I will work on the shed and I want to have a yard sale for later. Now I could have a FREE table with the less attractive old tools and other stuff Errol kept, because he was like Bob, hated to part with things. I'm getting excieted about cleaning the shed now. And Mark will take tools as payment, which makes it so much better for me.
Oh my goodness what a great idea - but Bob didn't kill you? We have to do the same thing in the next couple of months. We are going to downsize and move.
BRAVO !!!!
Your trash was someone else's treasure..good for you..Win-win...
Timing is everything and you are the best cattle poker around !!
Sue
Good for YOU!!!! That's the way to DO it!!!
I would rather just give stuff away and not ry to sell it. I've had a few garage sales, but always end up with a car load of stuff that has to be taken away in the end, so I may as well just give it all away.,
What a relief! Good for you!
around six months ago a house that was basically in darkness with many objects in the drive and garden was obviously abandoned and large wood structure were put up to close of entrances. About a month ago the house caught fire and my local fb page went mad - and most of us found that an old lady (who had moved out) was also a hoarder. It was on my walk and the curtains and windows had been completed destroyed and I could see piles of stuff stacked inside. Now boarded up and bigger metal fencing put in - but recently I noted that the garage at the back was open and their were obviously people searching for the hoarders treasures as a wheel barrow was being used... in the driveway and yard there are absolutely piles of "all manner of things" - I guess at some point a demolition crew will take everything away...
All I hoard is craft/art supplies and I do at times steadily make a "run through of getting rid" ... recently I got rid of a whole lot of things via Junk2Go...felt freeing.
Now I've joined a local west fb group "pay it forward" so hope to deal with some other things, real soon...as op/charity shops aren't accepting much now since covid...
Wow, well done Sandra. I don't think that would work here, just putting stuff out like that - one would probably just get complaints for littering! My dad was a hoarder like that, he never wanted to get rid of anything, big or small. Clearing the house before we sold it was a nightmare, after we had sorted through personal stuff and taken what we wanted we paid someone in the end to get rid of the rest...
I am clapping my hands for you, well done Sandra! We have so much stuff in our garage and we have been having similar conversations. I am getting ready for a 'for free' table too!
I can imagine your frustration. I have that frustration with my own shit I haven't gotten rid of in years. WAY TO GO!
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