clearing out the basement

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I have mentioned before both my packrat ways and my ... shall we say ... lack of interest in cleaning.

I have come to understand that it is entirely possible to have too much of any physical thing that has to reside in one's space, and I do a good job, now, of not acquiring. Unfortunately getting rid of everything I acquired in the past is a big job, and an unpleasant one on many levels.

It's hard for me to get rid of stuff. Even stuff I didn't remember I had.

It's hard for me to look over stuff from the 70s (who wants to remember that?).

When I decide I really must keep something (my postcard collection from when I was little), that means something else must come upstairs (which is already too cluttered).

It's depressing to find my late-60s original Peter Max "READ" library poster, and see that it had a corner ripped off at some point. I believe it has value, and surely much less value with the damage.............

Sigh.

But ok, progress is progress, right?

On the morning of Nov. 1, we rounded up toxics and took them to the county get-rid-of-toxics place. Oil paint. Turpentine. Paint thinner. Insecticides. Some of this stuff was inherited when we acquired the house, and some was left over from our complete refurbishment of every surface shortly after we acquired the house.

Then we came home and contemplated a trip to ... what has replaced the dump.

Starting at the bottom of the stairs, we find the pile of cardboard boxes waiting to be busted and bundled.

Ann Arbor has excellent curbside recycling. They will take a pretty wide variety of stuff. They take corrugated cardboard, but only if busted and bundled, and bundling it is a PITA if you have very much. This time we were not only getting rid of the recent acquisitions, but since the old stereo went, its boxes could finally go. Etc.

Our trash pickup has gotten a lot more annoying in recent years. Each house was issued a bin/cart/thing, and that is your limit. If it won't go in the cart, they won't take it. If you have more, tough toenails.

This is annoying to us as we essentially always have half of one trash bag (the bins will hold at least three full trash bags). So our bin thing is usually nearly empty. Except when we are, say, cleaning out the basement.

Do we get any credit for our generally empty bin, when we need more capacity?

Of course not.

And anything that won't go in the bin -- you are just screwed.

So we needed to make a trip to the "drop off station" where you can take anything other than toxics or liquids.

We had two crt computer monitors (which they take, for a $15 each fee), we had a couple of chairs, we had several bags of dead fabric things (worn-out clothes, threadbare sheets, etc), and, since we were going, we took the cardboard (which did not, yay, have to be bundled, only busted), and several bags of trash. (It's sad when you fill up your bin/cart/thing the same day they emptied it!)







A short interlude to ignore all the crud.





Boxwood.





We live in the northwest corner of town. The drop off station is in the extreme southeast. After a while, we arrive.





You pay at the shack for anything that you have to pay for. Computer monitors. Extra trash. Things that have (or used to have) freon.

You are entitled to leave recyclable stuff for free. You drive into this building and unload all the cardboard, dead fabric, styrofoam, etc.





Look at those cool spirals! Surely they are good for ... many excellent art projects.....





They take everything (solid and non-toxic).





Another perfect demonstration that in order to make anything cleaner, something else gets dirtier............... Not only do we trash the planet as we build, but then we trash it more when what we have built comes down......................





After we got home, and after we ate our ice cream (our traditional reward for doing something icky), I spent a good long time vacuuming out the car (since the seats were out, and all).


My honey points out that the title of this post should be "cleaning out the basement, part one of 487.........." That would be funny, if it weren't true......

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