Here's what you can do when you have empty space: you can fill it up.
Late last summer, I cleaned out our fairly cavernous garage. There on the far wall, you see all that remained after the cleaning spree: it's my "sorting center", where I put things that are destined to leave our home for a (hopefully) better place. Used books go to the library book sale, clothes go to a thrift shop or to the Community Aid rag bins for recycling, crafts go to our Creative Reuse thrift shop, etc. At any rate, that wall is where we sort and store things that we'll eventually donate.
But notice what's in front of that space: nothing. I finally got lots of bare floor between the aged Prius and everything else.
And what goes into that empty space? More cars!
Not our cars, of course. It would be silly for a family with only two drivers, who live in an eminently walkable and bike-able city, to have three cars of our own.
Nope, we've just been babysitting (or housing, or garaging -- whatever you call it) a pair of Miata convertibles for two different sets of friends of ours who don't have empty garages of their own. Our garage provides cover for the cars during the winter; in the summer these cars will go back to their owners for fun in the sun.
Not that my husband or sons mind at all having these extra cars around. In fact, our whole experience of going from owning multiple cars down to owning only one has paradoxically meant that we've had a much greater automotive variety in our lives than ever before. These visiting sport cars are just one facet of that variety -- the rental cars we've used for long trips have provided a plethora of other facets.
At any rate, this is just to say that several years into our "owning only one car" experiment, we're still as happy as ever with the arrangement. In fact, we've been delighted at the unexpected opportunities that keep coming our way as a result of owning more garage than automobile.
Late last summer, I cleaned out our fairly cavernous garage. There on the far wall, you see all that remained after the cleaning spree: it's my "sorting center", where I put things that are destined to leave our home for a (hopefully) better place. Used books go to the library book sale, clothes go to a thrift shop or to the Community Aid rag bins for recycling, crafts go to our Creative Reuse thrift shop, etc. At any rate, that wall is where we sort and store things that we'll eventually donate.
But notice what's in front of that space: nothing. I finally got lots of bare floor between the aged Prius and everything else.
And what goes into that empty space? More cars!
 |
| Two Miatas having a sleepover with our old 2001 Prius. |
Not our cars, of course. It would be silly for a family with only two drivers, who live in an eminently walkable and bike-able city, to have three cars of our own.
Nope, we've just been babysitting (or housing, or garaging -- whatever you call it) a pair of Miata convertibles for two different sets of friends of ours who don't have empty garages of their own. Our garage provides cover for the cars during the winter; in the summer these cars will go back to their owners for fun in the sun.
Not that my husband or sons mind at all having these extra cars around. In fact, our whole experience of going from owning multiple cars down to owning only one has paradoxically meant that we've had a much greater automotive variety in our lives than ever before. These visiting sport cars are just one facet of that variety -- the rental cars we've used for long trips have provided a plethora of other facets.
At any rate, this is just to say that several years into our "owning only one car" experiment, we're still as happy as ever with the arrangement. In fact, we've been delighted at the unexpected opportunities that keep coming our way as a result of owning more garage than automobile.
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