We have a huge attic and because of that, whenever things piled up in the house, we moved them up into the attic, never to be remembered. After our energy audit, we agreed to have insulation blown into the attic, which required flooring a new section of the attic, and moving everything to the area over the garage. I did not think it was possible to fit everything into that space, but I was wrong.
A lot of what we had in the attic, was nothing we really wanted or ever would use again. Upon any renovations, the previous owners of our house had moved up every light fixture and screen to store in the attic. In addition, someone, somewhere told Clay that it was imperative that you keep every box that any electronic device arrived in. I think it is sort of like not removing the tags on your mattress! We had a cemetery attic of old boxes. In many cases, the electronics that came in them were long gone.
The old boxes are now in the dumpster I ordered this week to dispose of the junk!
So far, no cardboard box police have yet arrived to fine us for destroying said boxes.
We moved everything we planned to keep to the new area in the attic and organized it according to holiday and or event. Baby furniture, kids toys, and keepsakes are all in one area, and each holiday has its own space. The versalift was worth its weight in gold as we lowered all the boxes and stuff we did not want.
Once it was all loaded into the garage, I then went through everything to determine its end.
Some went to Habitat for Humanity, some to the Humane Society and some to Good Will, and some did not pass go, or collect $200 but went directly to the dumpster. I did find a box of letters from my last summer at home between my junior and senior year of college.
This was way before the internet, and long distance phone calls were not free, so we actually wrote letters to our college friends who did not live in Little Rock! I can't believe I kept the letters, but I am so happy I did. I read them all and had a great walk down memory lane. I did not have copies of my letters, but all the letters I received talked about my letters to them, so I know I wrote them. Today I hate writing letters by hand--I love to write email letters or blog posts, but sitting down and writing cursive on paper I consider tedious, but it once was our main means of communication. My dear mother wrote me every week when I was in college. It was fun reading them all and reliving those times. What I am going to do with them now, I have not yet decided.
Our attic had been collecting stuff for years, even before we arrived, so it was a big task. We all worked together and had the bulk of the work done in a few hours. Today I finished up the last of the clean out from the garage, so we can both get our cars back in. We have the dumpster for a few more days, so we are rounding up other stuff to get rid of. I know cardboard can be recycled, but as much as we have it would take forever. It feels good to check off one more task, and the attic looks amazing. I just wish I had taken a before picture.