cleaning out the basement, part 2 of 487

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I knew there was a lot of junk in the basement, but I had no idea there were so many books........

Part of it isn't our fault. Well, is only our fault for being nice to the people who sold us the house. They left two cupboards full of old bound Harper's, in addition to an old fridge, in the basement, and an old freezer in the garage. We were too nice, and didn't tell them "Um. Get this #)($ OUT of here. Thanks."

Today we took 13 bags of books (9 bags of which were those old bound magazines) to donate to the library book sale. We also filled three bags with recyclable paper (ancient computer manuals and the like).

I'm betting we'll end up paying the not-dump to take the two cupboards and the old fridge. Nevermind paying some young muscle to get aforementioned items out of the basement.... Nevermind taking the seats out of the minivan again.....

Every good deed is its own punishment, eh? At least the old-freezer-in-the-garage went when the old garage went.

Ok, moving on from past errors.

Every bit out of the house helps, right? (I'm sort of stunned by the idea of all this stuff, moving here, there, somewhere. I bought some number of the books that went to the library today *at* the library, in previous times. Imagining some sort of animation showing stuff moving hither, thither, and yon........)



So far, class, we have learned that --

1) when you buy a house, make them get all the stuff you don't need OUT *before you close*. Don't let them leave stuff, especially stuff that is hard to remove (heavy stuff to remove from basement) and/or stuff that will actually cost you money to get rid of (old dead refrigerators, say). Don't feel sorry for the sellers because you are buying the house from their father's estate, and they don't even live in town anymore. Make them get the stuff OUT.

2) if you don't have space for books on the bookshelves you already own, do NOT (repeat NOT) acquire them, however cheap they may be. Walk away. Should you need a book later, you almost certainly can borrow any book from the library (or inter-library loan), or, if not, you can get it from Amazon and its associates. Do NOT acquire books because you *might* want them later. In fact, do NOT acquire any common item (thrift-store denim skirts you might cut up and make into a quilt?) because you *might* use it later. No, no, no. There will be more at the thrift store when you are actually embarking on your project, and you can get them then.

3) disposing of paperwork early on is a very good idea. You don't want to be disposing of decades-old reviews from work, nor old bank statements, nor all the insurance paperwork from your broken hand (1982) 25+ years later. Perhaps a "Throw this away by 1985" sort of filing system would be helpful.......... And defacing any instance of your social security number with a permanent black marker (or by ripping it out) is also probably a good idea............ You really (really) do not want to have to look through this sort of ancient stuff later.


A pithy summary -- ANYTHING that comes into your space has to go out.

Somehow, some time. Probably YOU will have to get rid of it. And if not you, your heirs. Have some consideration for your future self (or heirs). Acquire cautiously, and get RID of stuff you are not using. Really. Take its picture. Donate it to someone who can use it. Sell it. Recycle it. But get RID of it. Really. Now is good. Get rid of it.

Opportunity cost is real, and it applies to you even if you don't know it exists or if you don't believe it is true. Filling up your space with junk, however "valuable," "useful," "interesting," "beautiful," "sentimental," whatever, has costs in labor, energy, annoyance, etc, etc, etc, which will have to be paid, by someone, some time.

Really.


Ok.


Deep breath. Slowly in, slowly out. (Preferably NOT in the basement, but somewhere less dusty!!! Outside, maybe.)



To close, here is progress we can actually see. (The empty space in the basement is visible, too, but probably only to those of us who know what it used to look like....)

I told you that I vacuumed out the car after our trip to the not-dump.

Today, when I opened the door to get in to go to the library, I was stunned by the cleanliness.

Wow, eh????? Only one tiny leaf. Hardly any dirt at all. Just a few dog hairs. Trust me, this is WOW.





After the library, we went to the grocery. Not only was I out of Coffee Toffee Crunch, but we needed more bags! A sure sign that a lot of stuff has been leaving the house -- a dearth of grocery bags!

Yay.

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