Most of us gals do some form of spring cleaning. I used to do the whole shebang every year…washing walls in every room, polishing picture frames, cleaning closets and cabinets, etc. all at once. Since then, I have scaled down, doing a little here and there and eventually I get around to all of it, it just gets spread out a little.
Guys have their form of spring cleaning too although it encompasses a longer time frame. Somewhere between the end of harvest and the onslaught of spring planting, they put things in order in the barn. Repairs are made then tools get put back in their respective place, the barn gets tidied up and sometimes things even get re-arranged. So goes it in the barn.
The garage, though, is a whole different ball game. It’s a touchy situation. Unless you live alone, the garage is a shared, community property…at least in thought anyway. Guys usually have workbenches, toolboxes, bins of nuts and bolts, vehicle cleaning supplies and other necessities in there while us gals share some of the same space with our gardening tools, birdseed and craft supplies. There lies the problem, sharing space.
Guys tell us to go on and put our “stuff” on “their” shelves and that everything is just fine. That is until we move something or re-arrange a couple things. Then we find out that the shared garage space is really their space.
Without fail, this happened every spring after Jim and I got done setting lawn ornaments out and fixing what needed fixing, setting up new projects and getting flower pots around. The garage always looked like a tornado had hit it; tools left wherever we had used them, empty bags and boxes left wherever and traces of sawdust and potting soil wherever we had finished projects. So, why did we even call it a garage, there was no way a vehicle was ever going in that mess!
It also never failed that each year I would offer to clean the garage. That was always met with a direct stare and the words, “I will clean it myself”…period. And he did clean it eventually. Well, perhaps the word “clean” it wasn’t correct. It was more like he put things back where he knew where they were. This did not necessarily mean that tools were in the toolbox, bolts were all together, etc. Rather, it meant that certain tools were with certain screws, nuts and bolts that were to go together for future projects. This scheme worked for him, not so much for me.
So, it has been that way, year after year. Everywhere I look there are screwdrivers, never a problem finding one. Ball peen hammers were everywhere but I only had one claw hammer on the property. The same was true with tape measures, I had one. When I was in the garage, it was in the house and vice versa. Once in a while you need a handsaw, right? So far, I have found twelve! Enough!
A couple rainy days in a row along with the frustration of not finding what I needed when I needed it made this the year to remedy the situation. So, I started one day, putting all the same size bolts together in one bin, the same with washers and nuts. This wasn’t really that hard…or so I thought until I started opening drawers, cubby holes and other nooks and crannies. Why would a handful of roofing nails, an antifreeze tester and a combination lock along with a pair of wire strippers, a couple of u-bolts, three permanent markers and some spring clamps be together in a drawer?
I know what you are thinking, everyone has a junk drawer that catches oddball stuff, right? I get that but this wasn’t just one drawer, it was basically everywhere that things were just tossed together with no rhyme nor reason. Come on, one lone ¾ inch socket tossed in with a half roll of duct tape and a few cotter keys, what gives?
OK, so this job was going to take a little longer than I thought. That wasn’t a problem until I started coming across things that I had no idea what they were. I started putting a few things in a box by themselves to ask Ron what they were. Well, this didn’t work for long as I soon outgrew the box. Not one to be defeated, but I was out of my league. I threw in the towel until he was here.
So, another rainy day we both dove in. He told me what things were that I had no idea like a bolt that goes to the tractor (not labeled), a couple calipers, and so on. We found huge one-inch diameter round bolts about eight inches long that I will never use but they are all together. A whole bin of large washers I insisted go home with him so that maybe they will see some use in this lifetime. Electrical cords got hung up, he made a stand and mounted my scroll saw and installed a fluorescent light above the work space. Bins and drawers got labeled with their contents.
I put a piece of pegboard up on the north side for my gardening tools. The south side pegboard is solely for chains, hitches and other typical guy stuff. Finally, when I want a pair of side cutters, I don’t need to spend a half hour looking for them and a couple minutes using them. I think I can get used to this.
Of course, no system is foolproof. I told Ron that I will never use half this stuff. He said that you never know when you will need something, that it is organized and out of the way. So, is there a chance that in all of the stuff we found, many of which I have doubles and triples, there is possibly something I don’t have?
Yesterday I put it to the test. I was airing up the tires on the truck and, somehow, I lost one of the tire valve caps. I have no idea how it happened, it was right there and then it wasn’t! No problem, I would just grab another. Of all things I have that I have no use for, there is not one tire valve cap in my garage…guaranteed!
However, after a twenty-minute trip to the local NAPA store, there are now three extras in the bin with the tire chuck above the air compressor. These extras are just to ensure that I will never need one again!
So went our once-in-a-lifetime cleaning of the garage. I can hear all of you snickering now, “She thinks it’s going to stay that way?!” After this ordeal, I guarantee it will, at least for a long while.
I am also feeling a little smug knowing that guy things and girl things really can co-exist in a garage. It just takes a little ingenuity. Life in the garage really is good after all!
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