Spring Clean Up week

Continuing on the theme of getting rid of excess belongings, this is spring clean up week in my community. Looking in our alley, we really did get rid of a lot of crap. Where the hell does all this stuff come from, and why if half of what we had in our shed is in the alley, can we still not move in our shed?? That remains a mystery.

It is also a mystery why I can have such a hard time letting go of things. Some stuff is easy to part with, other stuff, it is a struggle and at times it was all I could do to not go out in the yard and put it back in our shed. I resisted, but it was close a few times, especially with a doll's crib my grandpa had made for me... what thirtysomething years ago.. it has a huge foot print, and ultimately, I can't see any of my friend's kids using it, or us, if it ever came that. It is cool, but I can't see it staying in our shed forever... not doing much of anything except taking up space. So, here I have immortalized that piece with words, and am letting it go. I hope that some one cruises our alley and has the right person for that. If not, I am not going to be around tomorrow when the garbage trucks come by because I would rather not know. Silly eh?

I do love the spring clean up week, it is almost like a glorified freecycle to your hearts content, or someone else's garbage is someone else's treasure week. So, our shed still not being all that spacious could have something to do with my cruising of the local hood to see what I could score in return for letting some of our things go. I got a new kitchen chair (nice hardwood, probably maple) in almost the same style as the other chairs, but without two posts broken and repaired too many times to count (that chair now sits in the alley, forelorn); a really cool old school wooden tobaggan that needs just a little luvin to be right as rain, and a kids table and chair set - which to my consternation met the previous owner of as I parked in front of their house to abscond with said items. I look forward to painting the table a bright red to go in Brandon's new room :D

Amazing how many pack rats there are around. Some streets there is nothing, other streets, there is crap everywhere. Anything you can imagine - some real steals, and some total crap that really does need to go. And lots of people cruising. I think this week is great - some people get stuff that has lots of potential, others get rid of unwanted clutter, and everyone wins!