Step One: The Unboxinating

This morning I rolled out of bed all fired up to start the garage project. I hadn't been able to do anything the previous evening because we'd had storms roll through, and I'd spent most of the evening watching the Weather Channel with one hand on my go bag in case of tornadoes.

But by morning the rain was gone, leaving cool but sunny April weather behind. Time to get to work!

I'd put the car in the garage in case of hail, so I worked around it. The garage will remain a car-shelter even after it's converted into my steampunk workshop and laboratory; I might as well get used to having the central area out of bounds.

My first impression was of a lot of mess and clutter--a lot more than I remembered. I grabbed a garbage bag and got to work, pitching empty topsoil bags (why did I leave them on the floor last spring? Why?), cracked plastic flowerpots, crumpled empty seed packets (was I planning on using them for origami or something? Last year me, you were so crazy), and an inexplicable broken coat hanger.

As I worked my way slowly across the back of the garage, filling garbage bags, I came across a mountain of cardboard boxes. My first thought? "Oh, I need those."

NO I DON'T. I don't need those! I closed my etsy shop three years ago; I don't have to obsessively save boxes to ship things out in. Time to break those boxes down.

So I did. And I did. And I did some more. And then I found another stack of older boxes in the corner from when I moved in.

It took me the better part of an hour to break down all the boxes, strip off as much plastic tape as possible, and knock off all the spiders. Apparently I'd been using the boxes to store my collection of live spiders.

When I was done, I put the boxes in the car and drove them to the recycle center. And that is step one finished.

I've got a long way to go.