Cleaning Out Your Garage

Once the space that used to house your vehicles, and or future man cave, becomes filled with clutter, it's hard to get it back. It becomes filled with scrap wood, pieces of stone or IKEA boxes from your wife's recent splurge. It becomes easier to throw stuff in there that you know you don't need, but think that you might be able to salvage. All it really is transforming into is a future project. DIYers will take this project on themselves. After all, if you just think of it as one piece at a time, it will soon unveil your former space. Start finding solutions to the junk, clutter and unwanted items and it will be gone in no time. However, when you are getting rid of these items, don't take the easy way out. Try to find the alternative outlets for items so that you are doing your part in an eco-friendly environment. Big piles of brush? Try to find a place that will recycle organic growth, often times they will turn it into brush. Leftover laminate or hardwood? Try Habitat for Humanity. There's normally a place for a majority of your items so think outside the box!

You've seen my garage? With a job like you have I would need a barn too!

nealtw said:

You've seen my garage? With a job like you have I would need a barn too!

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Lol, agree with neal.

Unfortunately, cleaning out my garage happens multiple times a year! haha Supposed to only be once in a while, but this little thing called life happens and then it starts to accumulate "stuff" again!

This may put you to sleep

Hoarding Disorder

A. Persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value.

B. This difficulty is due to a perceived need to save the items and distress associated with discarding them.

C. The symptoms result in the accumulation of possessions that congest and clutter active living areas and substantially compromise their intended use. If living areas are uncluttered, it is only because of the interventions of third parties (e.g., family members, cleaners, authorities).

D. The hoarding causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (including maintaining a safe environment for self and others).

E. The hoarding is not attributable to another medical condition (e.g., brain injury, cerebrovascular disease, Prader-Willi Syndrome).

F. The hoarding is not better accounted for by the symptoms of another DSM-5 disorder (e.g., hoarding due to obsessions in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, decreased energy in Major Depressive Disorder, delusions in Schizophrenia or another Psychotic Disorder, cognitive deficits in Dementia, restricted interests in Autism Spectrum Disorder).

Specify if:

With Excessive Acquisition: If symptoms are accompanied by excessive collecting or buying or stealing of items that are not needed or for which there is no available space.



Indicate whether hoarding beliefs and behaviors are currently characterized by:

Good or fair insight: The individual recognizes that hoarding-related beliefs and behaviors (pertaining to difficulty discarding items, clutter, or excessive acquisition) are problematic.

Poor insight: The individual is mostly convinced that hoarding-related beliefs and behaviors (pertaining to difficulty discarding items, clutter, or excessive acquisition) are not problematic despite evidence to the contrary.

Absent insight (i.e. delusional beliefs about hoarding): The individual is completely convinced that hoarding-related beliefs and behaviors (pertaining to difficulty discarding items, clutter, or excessive acquisition) are not problematic despite evidence to the contrary.

Not to be confused with a home handyman, who always has a little of what ever and can find bits and peices to make repairs and has tools not used for years just in case.

The part at the end which described "Excessive Acquisition" which include the "stealing of items" was humorous, but also a little troublesome because that probably is accurate for those suffering from Hoarding.

It had never occurred to me that some of the several hoarders I know may have stolen some of their stuff.

It's not hoarding as long as there's still crawl space in the garage!

Archena said:

It's not hoarding as long as there's still crawl space in the garage!

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Kinda' reminds me of a billboard with a helpline for people with a gambling problem.
It said
"i don't have a gambling (hoarding) problem, I have a money (space) problem."

http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/ss/defensemech_9.htm

Archena said:

It's not hoarding as long as there's still crawl space in the garage!

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Funny stuff! I've seen what happens when hoarders run out of space... they build "barns"

JunkDawgs said:

Funny stuff! I've seen what happens when hoarders run out of space... they build "barns"

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According to a social worker I met, Prozac will not help these people.

In the DSM Casebook, a guy who had an apt. in a building would take showers in the building locker room because he could not get into his own apt.
They did manage to get him back into his own apt. but not much else.
I don't know if other countries have this problem, or if they consider it a problem.

I helped a guy transport a free standing tool in my truck from HD/Sears/Lowes/Other to his house. When we got there, there was absolutely no room for this tool, the footprint of which was maybe 2' x 2'.
Incredibly, he tried to push this thing into the area even though not even Ahhnold can compress a whole room full of "stuff".
I think this behavior is a textbook case of denial. The result was that this brand new tool was placed under the deck under a plastic dropcloth.

I should go steal it.

I do not understand this kind of behavior.

Somewhere, under the stuff I been saving in garage to build storage units in garage, are magazine articles and the plans for building storage units in garage.

A video about this had the moderator saying that "Usage determines storage."

Old tax returns, etc., go to archives some distance away while DIY instructions & tools & supplies are organized nearby and accessible always.