Too Much Stuff

Today I was walking my dog, Neo, through the streets of our neighborhood, and I noticed many garage doors open. Some of my neighbors were working in their garages, yet, it appeared that they were doing nothing more than organizing  their junk.   I call it junk, but I am certain that they believe, as I do, it is actually great treasure which is packed away "just in case" we need it at some point in the future. This got me thinking about how I cannot stand setting foot in my own garage because of its very own state of dissaray.

Now, I am aware there are certain items that definitely belong in the garage, such as holiday decorations, which are only utilized once a year, and paraphernalia to be used in the great outdoors like bikes, camping gear and lawnmowers. However, our garage is so full of so many potentially usable items that, more often than not, it is frustrating and near impossible to find what I am looking for.

What's worse is that even when I convince myself it's a brilliant idea to be free of the plethora of unused items in my garage, whenever I think about actually trying to accomplish this I become so overwhelmed I don't even know where to begin. My husband and I take turns accusing each other of owning the most stuff and arguing over who needs to get rid of what. I think he owns way too many tools, for instance and he thinks I have more than my fair share of art supplies. Yet, neither one of us is actually willing to get rid of a darn thing.

Now, I understand it's great to have a place to store stuff when you aren't using it, but what makes this a problem is that I, for instance, get sick of various items cluttering my living space, so I conveniently move them to the garage.  This makes my house look sparkling clean and organized, but the second I step foot in our garage I become dizzy and claustrophobic. 

Therefore, as an attempt at a solution, I am going to revamp last year's New Year's Resolution-- to get rid of one thing every day. Honestly, I did follow through with it and learned to love freeing up our household  of many unused goods and clothes from my closet, but guess where they ended up? 

Consequently, I am going to take that resolution step further and actually start emptying the garage.  It's really going to be Ok, I will take a deep breath and just start with one item at a time,,,,, so, does anyone need some power tools?