Spring cleaning is underway at our house, but around here it's more than cleaning. We should be calling it "Spring All-the-things-we-couldn't-as-a-practical-matter-do-with-snow-on-the-ground." It includes a lot of construction and yard work.
Painting, carpentry (such as it is), planting, deck construction, and deck planning (different deck) are all part of the process. Oh, yes, and cleaning. Cleaning up and cleaning out. One of the hardest things to do in this area is get rid of things. In L.A. we had the Recycler free ad paper for things we could sell, and a nearby Goodwill drop-off for things we just needed to give away.
But the nearest Goodwill is about 30 miles away, and with no Recycler we have to rely on Craigslist, the online classifieds. And although Craigslist has been good for selling old cars, we've gotten very little response on anything smaller, and attempts to con us on more valuable items.
We sell things on eBay, but that only works for things that are easy to ship, not, for example, for the Empire dresser we're trying to sell.
For giving things away, we've had to settle for leaving it by the side of the road with a big sign that says "Free Stuff." (Actually, it says "free stuf!" because Danny made it a couple of years ago, and we love it too much to fix it.) That works sometimes, but we have to keep an eye on the weather.
But little by little we are paring down and building up, and probably by the time we've got it all just right, the kids will be moving out and we'll be hankering for a different kind of house.
A smaller one, with less room for "stuf," less space to clean, and far fewer staircases.
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