Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Spring Cleaning - Garage Project, Part 1

Jill inspired me to post this...  Today is the first day of spring and like so many people, my mind turns to decluttering and freshening my winter-weary house.  If you scroll back through this blog for a few YEARS, you'll see that I have been planning to clean out my garage forever.  Last weekend, I finally started.
 
I stood at the doorway into the house and snapped a panorama of my garage.  Once I got to the door to the back yard, I had to step down to continue the circle.
 
Buried in there were some chairs, a bowflex, some yard equipment, a box of mattress remnants, a diningroom table and a large piece of green foam. 
 
 
Not only was it cluttered with stuff, it was filthy.  Spiderwebs, sawdust, fur and plain old dust covered most everything.  Lint too - which I will go into more detail on shortly.
 

 
I enlisted the aid of my son.  We opened the garage door and started hauling stuff out.  There were several piles (yard stuff, house stuff, side of the road stuff, and trash).  One guy thought we were having a garage sale and started poking through our things until I told him that nothing was for sale, but that pile right over there was free for the taking.  He did actually take a couple of things and left.

The Boy grabbed a broom and started sweeping, amazed at how much there was to be swept up.  After he finished sweeping, I sent him away so that I could consider how to accomplish the next part.  While I was thinking, I started vacuuming up spiderwebs from everywhere and when I got to the dryer, I realized that there was lint concreted to the floor and wall behind - the vent had come loose allowing lint to blow all over the place.  That decided my next course of action.

You do know that lint accumulating in your dryer can cause a fire, right?  I already knew I was overdue to clean it out.  My FIL bought a "Lint Lizard" which is an attachment for your vacuum that goes down the lint hole.  Just cleaning the screen doesn't cut it.  I managed to remove a lot of lint using the Lint Lizard that FIL gave me.  I also have a long round brush for cleaning the dryer vent hose and the bottom part of the dryer.  I got a lot out!  I also cleaned the washing machine.  I'm amazed at all the dirt that accumulates in weird places - like the lid.  Also pulled the fabric softener dispenser apart and cleaned that.  There was a semi-solid, shiny black coating under the cup where the stuff is dispensed.  Yuck!  that's all clean now!

 
There was a weird shelf that stuck out from that bottom level over the dryer.  It was supposed to hold laundry detergent and such.  I always hated that shelf, so I took it down.  This is much more open and makes more sense.  It's actually rather nice to do laundry now.

 
This is one side of the garage, next to the AC unit.  It's full again with chairs from the diningroom - but that's only temporary until we put our diningroom back together. 
 
It's much more open now that I've gotten rid of so much stuff.  But I'm not done yet!  Another weekend in the near future should see me finish it off.

5 comments:

karisma said...

Oh how I would love to let you loose in my house. :-) I am sure you would have great fun. LOL You always seem to be cleaning something or renovating something. Superwoman! I am amazed that you don't have to clean the dryers lint filter more often. We clean ours every time we use it. The filter is on the outside of the dryer door.

Jill said...

thanks for playing. sadly, all my hard work on tuesday was shot to heck on wednesday when I discovered the kids had been slinging their food underneath their play kitchen. ants. for the love of all that is holy. I beat them, sprayed them, swept, mopped, beat them some more, and we put down a huge layer of poison inside and out. I still saw a couple this morning. Don't get me wrong, there weren't even a lot, but it frustrates me to no end that I didn't think of moving their toys and cleaning under them when they're so close to our own dining set. *idiot* so every one is a huge annoyance. I'm just praying that the ones going through the poison will take it back to their hidey hole and get rid of the rest of them. The kids make such a mess that I can't imagine being able to keep every single crumb swept up at all times.

joanygee said...

Goodness what an achievement, you have been busy. Your lint-lizard sounds good. Here the tumble dryer gets upended and blasted with the compressor.

Unknown said...

Cleaning a part of your house might be synonymous to being boring, but what you did was correct. Asking your son to help will take some load off your hands, and you can make this a bonding experience. Before you know it, you're done with the work. How's your garage now?

Bo Tolbert @ HJS Supply

Machelle Ledoux said...

That is quite an undertaking you have there. Way to get the whole family (and to the extent of that one guy, the whole neighborhood too) involved in helping you out. De-cluttering is great and I always dread doing it until I am actually in the process of it and then I find it liberating. How is the state of your garage now that you can actually see it?

Machelle Ledoux @ Total Garage Repair