A Week of Boxes

Last Sunday I had a long conversation with myself about how I really have got to deal with all those boxes in the garage. Today, I am happy to say that I met my goal of a box a day this past week. Sort of.

Sunday:

It turned out that Sunday's box was mostly the Drama Queen's stuff. So that turned out to be easy -- except for the fact that the DQ already has 19 boxes of her stuff in the hallway that she can't find space for. I guess I'll go rearrange the sheds and see if we can fit them in.

Monday:

Okay. I confess. I did not go through this box on Monday. I had a really bad headache all day. No idea why. And I didn't go through it on Tuesday either, probably because I was catching up on everything that didn't get done on Monday. But I did go through it on Wednesday. Good thing, too. I was running out of space tin which to change the day. This box was full of stuff from the upstairs bathroom. Some got tossed, some got put away, a few things were passed along to people who can use them.

Which brings us to Tuesday's box:

Which was also sorted through on Wednesday. This was mostly stuff that just needed to be put in the appropriate place.

And finally! Wednesday's box, which I actually went through on Wednesday:

The Chronicles of Narnia and trash of various types. That was about it. Then, because I was feeling just a little guilty about having fallen behind, I went through some bonus boxes on Wednesday:

The empty bin on the left actually had been full of notebooks and other school papers left behind by Media Guy. I asked him whether he wanted to hang on to these papers or I could recycle them, but he still wanted them. So they are now in his room awaiting his disposition. The box on the right was full of stuff that no one wants or needs and a bunch of cables:

I thought these could be Freecycled, but the Wizard said they might be useful. He carried them up to his lair where he is, no doubt, doing wizardly things with them.

Back on track, we come to Thursday's box:

The contents mostly just needed to be put in appropriate places, or given to appropriate people. But it made me sad to go through this one. This box contained the contents of my desk at the synagogue I used to attend, and teach at, and run the youth program for. I was sad because I worked so hard at those jobs and to so little effect. But some friends of mine got some nice sparkly star stickers out of this box and the household supply of staple removers went from 2 to 7, so it wasn't a total loss.

On Friday, we had friends for dinner. Nevertheless, I went through a box or two. I didn't put a label on them, but these are Friday's boxes:

The box on the left holds a dance pad and the software for DDR. We bought them for the youth group, but I didn't leave them behind when I walked out because there really wasn't a youth group left by then. So I gave the DDR stuff to some young friends of mine. The box on the right had some sheet music and a bunch of Wii and PS2 games and controllers. All were put away where they belonged.

And finally, Saturday's box, which was kind of fun:

Most of these things were in a kitchen drawer that got emptied when we re-did our kitchen two or three summers ago. So they've been in the hot garage for a while, resulting in some interesting amalgamations:

I decided to toss the melted and warped havdallah candles. The candlesticks and candle holders and other candle-related paraphernalia were another matter:

Everything there has a story of some kind. The tall brown candlesticks were the first pair of candlesticks that the Wizard and I ever bought. We got them at a little shop on Royal Street in New Orleans and they were our Shabbat candlesticks for the first year or so we were married. Until we figured out that wood candlesticks could also burn under the right circumstances. My Grandpop Burgess made the short wooden candleholder. I have its mate upstairs, along with a bowl all made from the same burl of wood. So I found room for these things on the shelves.

In addition to all these boxes (I counted 10), we also finally put away the sukkah decorations that have been scattered about the dining room  and Media Guy's room for the past few weeks. We took everything down in a hurry when a big storm was coming through and since they were mostly in Media Guy's room (out of sight, out of mind), they weren't a problem.

Those are the stained-glass fruits and vegetables (and other odds and ends) that we have hung up in our sukkah every year since the year after we discovered that raccoons and squirrels and groundhogs and who-knows-what else were not above eating the real fruits and vegetables we used to hang in our sukkah.

The end result of all this decrapification is 6 or 7 boxes of sukkah decorations moved out to storage in the shed, a wider pathway in the garage, a bunch of things given to people who can use them, other things (finally) put away, and a moderate amount of trash. Not bad, all things considered.