what's lurking in your garage?

In my quest to reduce the amount of "stuff" We've acquired over the years and to maintain a good sense of organization behind the scenes, I'm really giving it my all in effort to reduce the amount of items we've kept stored cardboard boxes in our home. The embarrassing part is that nothing I've come across so far has belonged to my husband, it's been items such as children's toys, household goods that we "might" once again use one day and of course and my ever growing collection of crafting items. From countless counted cross stitching kits and patterns to all sorts of paper crafting items from my scrapbook nook and yes even fabric from my quilting corner. I'm determined to reduce the amount of my crafting stash and am giving these quality items to places that can use that bit of comfort that comes from crafting.

Last night while going through a file box out in the garage that I didn't go through earlier because I thought that it held old business tax records. Surprise! After opening it, I discovered that the file box didn't contain what I thought it had, in fact it was stuffed FULL of counted cross stitching charts (many of which date back to the 1990's). After going through and sorting them, 90% of those charts are going to be donated, I pulled some for me to keep and the rest will go up for sale at my Etsy store Busy Bee Design Studio. I'll be sorting the counted cross stitching charts into groups and will be selling them in bundles going by theme.

So even though I claim to have rid myself of my hoarding/pack rat ways, there's always something lurking in the garage, basement or closet...waiting to be discovered, LOL!

Using my friend Cindy's move as my source of inspiration, I've found myself getting into the groove of preparing my home for a move. Are we moving? My answer is- No, not at this time but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. I relate what I'm doing (sorting and purging of our belongings) as something similar to that of a school fire drill or a military exercise- preparing for something that "could" happen but don't know when or if it will happen.

Personally speaking, there's nothing worse then waiting until the last minute before you start the purging process. I've found that you've can't wait until the 4 to 6 weeks before the move to start the process. You've got to actually stay with it through out your time on station. Waiting until the last minute is when it becomes a frantic push to rid your household of it's "extras" that have been hanging around. I can say this from personal experience, it can be quite the overwhelming task to rid your home things. You know that it's too late when the moving company truck pulls up to your front door and you end up bring that 'stuff" with you only to have to get rid of it at another destination. And so continues the hoarding/pack rat process of accumulation. My question for you is this...What's lurking in your garage?