back the train up

On Wednesday we had a guy come out and look at our shingles. Our brand new shingles are buckling on our garage. In the end he said we need to empty out the attic and spray insulation in there before winter.

Oh my goodness. The attic is where I store EVERYTHING. And now I have to find new homes for all of it. I can't use that space anymore! And if you have been in my house you know we only have one closet in the entire home. And the basement doesn't have proper stairs for fitting bins up and down the steps. I could store things in the barn, but it's not convenient and it is also so dusty.

So it will all be heading to the garage. Or at least half of it will be. My goal is to get rid of half of it before then.

But here is how this is going so far. I call this a 'Back the Train Up' Project. Do you know these kinds? The kind of project that in order to do the actual project at hand (empty the attic) there are nine other projects that really should get done so that this project is done well. Like the garage needs to be cleaned out and purged a bit, making room for the stuff that has to fit in there. And the upstairs closet needs an overhaul to make more room for the things I want to store in there.

Here's my nightmare: Rory just starts taking bins out of the attic, pell mell, with no real plan for where they should end up. And then, the kids, being helpful and fun, begin to unpack the bins and discover favorite items stored away, and by the end of the day the contents of the entire attic are strewn all over my house.

I've lived my life long enough to know this scenario is more probable than my own orderly game plan.

So I have begun my work in haste. I'm sort of excited because I do love getting rid of stuff and this is the ultimate in forced minimalism. But I'm also sort of in disbelief because there is so much stuff that needs to find new homes...

Wish me well!