My sister Jackie and I are working in separate areas of our property tossing out, or setting aside to donate, stuff we’ve accumulated over the years that we don’t use. Call it mid-winter spring cleaning.
Jackie is in our storage area in the garage digging through everything that’s hers, and I was in the outdoor shed for two hours earlier today doing the same thing, plus reorganizing our mutual stuff — garden and goat tools, fertilizer spreaders, and more.
Monday or Tuesday we’ll change places. (I go get my kitty Patches from the vet on Monday or Tuesday…probably Monday.)
Because we live on the same property but in a “duplex” more or less (with our own separate living spaces), we always physical distance when we decide to do something “together.” When we go into each other’s abodes, I wear a mask religiously; Jackie stays six feet away; she isn’t into masks except where and when mandated.
We rented a two yard barrel for a month so we could get rid of the after-remodel detritus that came out of both of our abodes this summer and was piled next to our home. There was a large pile of that. It all went out in the first two loads, so we had two more loads to go before the city comes to fetch the barrel.
Jackie pulled an old carpet out of her sewing room last night, so the fourth barrel was filled up by that for this week. I doubt we’ll be able to completely fill another one, because we don’t keep un-useable stuff in the garage storage or in the shed, but she’s going to keep it for one more week just to be sure.
Most of what comes out from now on will probably get donated to the Tacoma Rescue Mission and/or some other secular organization that directly supports the homeless, the disadvantaged, and the poorest among us. I’ve decided not to take it to places like Goodwill where people have to pay as much as they do these days to buy things. (I call it Badwill these days.) We want to help the poorest of the poor.
Jackie is fine if it goes to a Christian organization like the Tacoma Rescue Mission (since it’s directly helping the homeless), and so am I, but I want at least half of it to go to an organization that doesn’t proselytize–perhaps ARC of Washington.
Why?
Because there are homeless, hungry and struggling people of all faiths and creeds, and they shouldn’t be forced to sit through a religious spiel to get the help they need. It’s an obstacle and, in many cases, unwelcome (not to mention a complete waste of time for the proselytizers.) I don’t know if the Tacoma Rescue Mission does proselytize, but they are a Christian nonprofit, so my guess is that they do. I imagine some people avoid going there for that reason.
There’s plenty of room in the shed, now that 90% of it is organized and the extraneous stuff has been hauled to the garage to donate. It will be easy to get to the rest of the stuff to dig through it when Jackie gets the chance. It’s mostly yard stuff — fertilizer, weed eater, some garden tools, motor oils, and miscellaneous stuff like that. It shouldn’t take her more than 30 minutes to get through. I did the lion’s share of the work that needed to be done out there…
So, that’s today’s major accomplishment. I don’t know that there will be any others. But hey, it’s Saturday. It’s the wheekend. We’re supposed to be resting and doing fun stuff, right? WHEEE!!!
If I don’t do another thing this weekend, it will be okay. It might not feel okay, but it will be okay. (I’m a producer. I like producing results. I’m producing results right now, but not for much longer!)
Bye!
(See? Told ya!)
