De-Cluttering So, I Can Find My Tools
Yesterday was a honey-do-day, up to a point. The beginning of the gardening season means I had to make space in the garage for all my pots. That meant de-cluttering the garage so I could find my humble spade and clippers.
Most of the clutter was an assortment of empty Amazon boxes that I kept to pack up items I planned on donating. Now, this wasn’t the first sweep I had made on the empty cartons, either. And yes, I have a tidy give-away pile!
(But Amazon and I may need a trial separation.)
A garage, attic, and basement are luxuries we have not always had in our previous homes. Nor would I always have been quick to describe these spaces back then as luxuries. But, having space to sort and store our stuff is quite an asset. Except when organization is not a primary talent, but procrastination is. Then, they can become a wee bit of a liability.
Nevertheless, extra space can add extra time — in my economy.
When I am tidying up, since the garage is just steps away, banishing an empty box (etc) there while I get on with other stuff made sense and saved time. That is until I couldn’t get over or around those boxes to get to the wheelbarrow, and all my gardening stuff!
Now, to be clear, we stacked the boxes so we could maneuver the car in and out during inclement weather. Technically only one side of the garage needed attention.
Technically.
Tempus Fidgets
I felt great satisfaction flattening, stacking and bundling the boxes for recycling, until an unhappy thought dawned: all the time I saved stashing the boxes away, I was now spending disposing of them.
I said I did not have time, but to what did I give the time, and was it a fair exchange? ~Muriel Strode, My Little Book of Life, 1912
But, finally seeing the gardening paraphernalia, turning on the outside spigots, pulling a few weeds, and then ambling through the local nursery made me feel like I added several grains of sand to my hourglass!
April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. ~William Shakespeare
I wish I could bottle the tonic early April can be . . . it would be good to have a bottle or two when July and August roll around. God willing, summer’s heat and humidity will be more topics on which I can kibitz!
Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time. ~Martin Luther
Let the Gardening Begin!