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Christmas Dad:
 What started as
"Let's just tidy up the garage a little" blossomed into a Yuletide
Extravaganza for one lucky Dad! Along with the three boys, Mom and
I declared the garage "Santa's Workshop! No admittance!!" We worked
together to rearrange and organize things, toss out a few more things,
put up some simple shelves with a great peg board and Voila! On
Christmas morning Dad was stunned to get his beloved tool bench
back way better than ever! It had long since been swallowed up by
life before Clutterboy. (back to
top)
Gwen
and the 9 year honeymoon:
Gwen said, "Gee,
Clutterboy, my girlfriend and I just cleaned my office six months
ago, but now look at it!" After carefully analyzed her setup, we
discovered that she was in need of some fundamental changes: For
starters, the box holding her wedding dress had been the first thing
you saw in the main closet of her office since she was married (nine
years ago) I told her that might have something to do with
the crowded feel.
Six months later
she still has her clutter under control "Thanks Clutterboy!"
(back to top)
Kate
and the garage of doom:
Kate tugged open
her garage door that first day, full of apologies and warnings about
the impending clutter catastrophe. I instantly assured her we could
do this; that I had seen worse. All lies. It was, in fact, the worst
I had ever seen and even I felt overwhelmed at first. Full of reassuring
confidence, however, we dove in and after an hour it was clear that
Clutterboy had not yet met his match! As we sifted, organized, pitched,
and classified, we eventually got it all straightened out. But it
was a few days until her tool bench showed up. (back
to top)
Indiana
Joyce and the Raiders of the lost Shed:
The large storage
shed was piled high with boxes full of the flotsam and jetsam of
Joyce, a fascinating woman of 88 years, once an honored world traveler,
now busy whoopin' Parkinson's Disease.
Ten years before,
all the carefully packed cardboard boxes had been quickly piled
in. The shed had a wooden floor placed directly on dirt. For ten
years the buffet was open for busloads of a variety of vigilant
and vile "beasties." If a box was on the floor, it was pretty much
destroyed.
But we saved so
much; a ton of antiquities, artifacts, collectibles and history
came out of that shed. Where to start. Dozens of Mayan and Incan
bowls, figurines and tools, some nearly 2,000 year old! (Hey, the
guy at Stanford said so.) Chinese scrolls and miniatures. Important
Mexican and Central American paintings. Carvings. Scupltures. Sterling
silver cigarette cases. So much more.
And from the Pennsylvania
side of her family: (and the other side of the shed) so much more
stuff she also somehow inherited. A grand doll house, homemade with
love in the 1880's, complete with all the fixins'. Boxes full of
boxes of small collections of keepsakes and souvenirs. A dozen boxes
of miniature toys and colorful figures, each no bigger than a coin.
Aunt Ada's old family scrapbooks. (Aunt Ada was a well-established
nurse during the FIRST World War.) Everything was labeled, boxed
with string and untouched for fifty years. And it all would have
been dinner. Clutterboy had fun on that job. (back
to top)
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