We've been picking through the garage at Jack's house today, making room for a someday garage sale or huge donation to Goodwill. What a job! The garage is full of, not only Jack's workshop, but also a huge stash of food. And one thing that I've learned is that food and garages don't mix very well.
Some of the canned goods seemed fine, but other stuff is oozing out of the edges. Many cans are dented or outdated. The boxed stuff is all hopeless, having been chewed into, outdated, or just ... icky. There was a brand new box of See's candy, all wrapped in plastic, and under the plastic, a gold box with a gold tie. Jack and I each said, "Oooh!" only to turn it over to see the hole where the mouse had entered.
There were many gallons of juices and water. We saved what we could for the local food bank, and we poured out the rest, and we'll recycle those bottles.
And there were more clothes in the garage, mostly fine, all with tags still on. I bagged those and took them into the house, adding to the huge pile of bags there.
For those of you who are wondering, this is not my stuff, but Jack's and his former wife's. I'm just helping him to get started in cleaning up the stuff, so that the house may once again be a place where a family could live.
So.. are we making headway? I have to say that, after taking 3 vanloads to the foodbank, a vanload to recycling, a truck and trailer to the dump, and filling the van again with stuff for recycling and the foodbank, and partially filling another truckload for the dump, there really is not that much difference in the way the place looks. I know that we'll get there eventually, but not today.
We took a couple of days off from working in the house, spending most of Friday working at Artworks, and Saturday we did some laundry and ran some errands.
Also, Thursday evening, we had a delicious dinner with Linda and Mike. Then on Friday, we went out for Italian food at a new restaurant on north State Street. Their pizza was amazing! We went with 12 other Big Rapids/Tucson people, and it was really fun.
Last night, we enjoyed a pork tenderloin cooked on the grill, artichokes, and sweet corn. Tonight, Jack's concocting a meal from baked beans, the leftover pork, a Vidalia onion, and a green pepper. And it's ready! :)
Sunday, May 31, 2009
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Janee, please ditch all that edible stuff. You wouldn't want to poison some foodbank recipient by having him dine from a bloated can full of bacteria. Don't feel guilty, just ditch it all. It'll make the job easier if you go through it with the goal of tossing it all out. Take pictures of the stuff with taqs on it, and give it to Goodwill. Food shouldn't sit in a cupboard for more than a few months. I'll bet that was a happy mouse who happened onto the chocolate. My kind of rodent!
ReplyDeleteLynell
You could come to field day and jack coule cook ;-)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lynell. Also let me get this right. You are cleaning out the house by taking stuff from the garage and putting it in the house. I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteJohn Mc
Lynell:
ReplyDeleteAs a person who has worked and volunteered in a food bank I would say take the stuff that looks completely OK to to the food bank. Toss anything else.
The food bank will go over it. Basically if it looks at all like it has a problem it will be tossed, so you might as well toss it. That includes labels that have gotten wet or any outward distortion of the can. But there are a lot of other things we checked for.
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ReplyDeleteSo if it looks good and is not to outdated go ahead and neatly pack it up and send it to the food bank. They will probably be able to use most of it. You can count that if it is bad they will screen it out before giving it out. So the patrons will be well fed and will stay healthy. Count on it!!!!
ray kb9lgs
Hmmm... all the above advice. The only advice I ever give is, "if you rub beeswax on shoestrings they stay tied better."
ReplyDeleteHave a Great Day,
Jim
Lynell and Ray, thank you for your kind counsel! We are ditching all the stuff with bruised or rusty cans, and letting them decide on the ones that are just dusty. There are people there when we leave stuff, so we ask them and they are grateful. I am sure that some stuff gets tossed, but they're good at making those decisions, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteJohn, we just took a bag of clothes from the garage into the house -- not that the house is entirely safe from rodentia, but it seems better. And, believe me, one more bag of clothes in the house makes NO difference.
I hope you are doing OK. I'm afraid a situation like that would overwhelm me enough that I would just hire some professionals to come in and take everything out, and sort and dispose of it. But you are much younger and stronger than I. Actually, Jim gave the best advice. I should take a tip from him.
ReplyDeleteLove, Kathryn