How I made . . . a mess

I've been trying lately to think about Monday's posts as "making Mondays", without being too obsessive about that theme.   Well, with the traveling I did last week, I didn't have too much time to make something new, aside from making a mess in the garage.

So, to keep loosely on the theme . . . this is how I made a mess.  (Anyone who likes is welcome to play along at home!). 

We've been trying to rearrange the garage -- not just "clean it out", which is understandably the standard example of everyone's least favorite time-sucking task.  No, our garage has actually been fairly tidy and open, but we're trying to Re-Zone this space to act as a staging area for moving.   So instead of tidying the garage, I've moved things that used to be neatly stacked away so they're now things in piles and more piles.

The idea is to break the garage into well-labeled zones.   We have a zone for things we're going to put out at the early-July yard sale.   We have zones for things that go to special places -- Habitat Restore, a craigslist buddy who collects packing materials, a scrap metal dealer.  We have zones for things that are staying here for the new owners, zones for things that go in the first wave of moving, and zones for things that will go in the second wave,  late in August.  We're working on creating a zone that the new folks can use for storing their stuff before they move in.  It's a big garage; we can share.

But of course, moving stuff around in a garage uncovers dirt.  And also, I realized as I started moving things that my incredibly well-organized stack of scrap wood happens to include a lot of stuff not fit for moving to the new house, and definitely not suitable for the Habitat Restore place. 

We have a buddy with a wood-burning stove; he declined a lot of these scraps because they're too big to fit in his stove, though.

Prewash pretends that she cut up this wood,
but actually she stayed in the house while I did it.

So I spent a few hours on Sunday and early Monday with my circular saw, chopping things down into burn-able sizes.  And a circular saw with wood -- especially when it's particle board wood -- makes a clean place into a messy place VERY quickly and efficiently.

So, lots of sawing.  Lots of sweeping.  Soon I'll haul out the shop vac and do lots of vacuuming.  But hopefully then I'll be able to use the space more efficiently and the ZGP (Zoned Garage Project) will proceed smoothly.

Prewash wants to know: anybody want any scrap wood pieces to burn?

And that's how I made a mess in my garage.

You're welcome.