Three Car Garage and We Need More Space

One of my new favorite cable shows is Clean House. The premise of the show is this. Families call in or some "loved one" calls in for them, and the Clean House crew comes out to see what kind of mess the family's house has become after months if not years of neglect. After some free in-home counseling, the crew cleans out the house, has a huge yard sale and uses the money earned to refurbish the house to the family's liking. Sounds like a great idea, however, you do have to live in the Los Angeles area.

Each morning as I walk through my neighborhood, I can't help but notice there are houses with two and sometimes three car garages and all of the cars are sitting out in the driveway. That usually means the garages are packed full with stuff. When you think about that a moment it tends not to make a lot of sense. We fill our garage space with Christmas decorations, high school yearbooks, and encyclopedias that even the flea markets won't take off our hands. All the while our $30,000 cars, trucks and SUVs whether the elements out in the driveway.

So how does something like this happen? Well to start with we find just what we want or something that we certainly can not part with, and we hang on to it forever. Before long, we find the next best thing so that "something we can't do without" finds its way to the closet. From there it is just a short trip to the attic. Once the attic is full and we need more stuff, we start moving stuff to the garage. When we are no longer able to maneuver around the stuff to get into our car something has to give, so of course the vehicle has to go. Now what? You would think a call to Junk-be-Gone would be in order, but no not us. We find the nearest storage company and actually rent space to put more stuff.

One of the greatest benefits to moving every so often is the purging that takes place. After moving some boxes from one location to the next it becomes abundantly clear that it is time to use what is in that box or get rid of it. Sometimes its best not to know what is in the box, and just let it go. Oh there are some things along the journey that we want and even need to keep. And then there are some things that just need to make their way to someone else's garage or the nearest landfill. Better yet, go green and call Clean House and have them come work their magic at your place. Of course, that will mean a move to California. And the cycle continues.