Our family used to stock up on empty boxes and
bags to fill with clutter before our annual spring-cleaning roundup. Old boxes
and bags would be pulled from closets and garage shelves to be sorted into each
new marked bag or box.
The plan was to condense our piles then set
upon the place with mops, vacuum cleaners and scrubbing brushes.
By the time we had sorted and packed the new
boxes, exhaustion inevitably set in. We’d declare defeat and shove everything
back into the closets and onto the shelves.
It wasn’t spring cleaning; it was a futile game
of annually rearranging our growing mounds of stuff into even more boxes and
bags.
Then we discovered tarps, those inexpensive
poly vinyl sheets that are mainstays for wall painters, landscapers and
construction sites. Problem solved.
Indoors, we would spread a tarp over the floor
of a room and dump the boxes from closets directly onto the waterproof tarps.
If something broke or spilled, the tarp protected our floors. Instead of buying
new boxes, we vowed to use only half the existing boxes.
Once we saw the sheer quantity of our stuff
scattered over the tarp surface, our descent into hoarding became obvious.
Decisions on what to keep were much easier with a forced limit on boxes. I
wasn’t going to throw out family heirlooms to keep around stacks of old
sweaters.
For the garage, we purchased tarps designed to
safely contain hazardous chemicals. We spread one onto the garage floor, where
it became quickly piled with paint cans and spray bottles containing only dregs
of the original contents. Piles of rusty nails and what we labeled mystery
tools joined the heap.
With the job done, we simply folded the corners
to package the trash for disposal. Call your city government offices about
proper hazardous waste disposal.
The tarps coverage contained dirt and spills,
so cleanup was easy. With fewer stuff in the house and garage, cleaning up is
easier throughout the year.
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