Clearing off the porch

Ten to twelve years ago, we moved to this house.  Because our old house was nearby, instead of hiring a moving company or even a moving truck, we hauled things over in a zillion trips, using a small trailer and the back seat.

Near the end of the task, there were about twelve boxes still to go.  Two family members, in an effort to be helpful, brought them across and put them on my (large, covered) porch.  Although that did complete the job, it also fell into the "inertia trap":  once things are set down, it takes a lot of effort to get them moving again.

Because we had moved 99.9% of our belongings in a short period, the inside of the house was a jumble -- so, there wasn't a good place to move the additional boxes to:  I'd been waiting to carve out a spot, and then bring the new boxes over.  But, now that they were over, and "placed" -- well, other tasks were of higher priority.

And now it's twelve years later.  And, starting a few weekends ago, I've finally got around to chipping away at the (now covered with dried leaves) boxes.

Two weekends ago I went through two boxes, and recycled a bunch of lecture notes from classes I taught, and classes I took.  Also a bunch of photocopied journal articles that contributed to my long-forgotten dissertation.

Midway through this last week I opened up a small box:  two small piggybanks filled with pennies (actually, one was a metal pop can), and a bunch of odds and ends -- including a molded plastic hand that I used to use as a letter holder (e.g. for bills) (I think I got it at a garage sale).

Today I went through three more boxes:  one had a bunch of photocopied journal articles for my dissertation: I saved three or four of them, and recycled the rest.  It also had my "human subjects" paperwork, and permission forms for accessing the restricted survey data that I used for my dissertation:  long since unnecessary.

The second box had the vinyl "bag from the trunk" from the car we drove in Seattle:  it was more like a tray with compartments than a "bag".  It had a few wrenches, some rope, a partial roll of TP (just in case you got stuck somewhere), some matches, a tire gauge, a compass...  a whole lot of car-related miscellaneous.  It also had the cloth bag of marbles that my mom had sewn for me when I was a kid (so that's where it went...!!!), plus other minor miscellaneous (e.g. a bunch of those plastic "report covers" we used in high school and college, when turning in papers; the edges were water-damaged, so the recycled or threw them away -- depending on the material). 

The box also had a white, opaque shower curtain with a few paint splatters:  I think had originally been a drop-cloth for painting, and then  I'd included it with the "car kit", in case I ever had to crawl under the car in wet weather, while wearing decent clothes).  But I'll run it through the laundry, then put it with my "filming gear", to hang in front of lights to soften them.

And the third box had a bunch of hangers of various sorts -- some of them really good quality (e.g. wooden pants hangers).  Kind of weird to have on your porch for twelve years.  Included was three cloth-covered kid-sized hangers with faces on them, which I remembered from my childhood.    


So, some interesting finds.  A few more boxes to go.  Just trying to get over the inertia, and pick away at the jumbled contents of our house, in the areas where I can make a difference.

But, it's going to be a long slog:  twelve years of accumulation and entropy can't be addressed in a week.

But, I'm making progress.


--GG