A Nits Cleaning of the Garage: a retrospective

Today, OhCountess was working, she's worked every weekend since we got back from Vegas.

The weather here in MN started out a little muggy, but at least it wasn't hot.

The task I gave myself today was to tame the garage. A winter of neglect had taken my once orderly garage and turned it into a 2 stall. I know, I should be grateful to have a 2 stall garage, there are many people that don't have a garage. But alas, I built this house with 3 stalls and even put in a work bench. Its in the back, buried under all the crap on the right. I want my space back. Click the picture to see it clearer.


I had high hopes for the day. I played some ridiculous online poker on Friday night, totally fun and a bit profitable. No more hangover, time had healed that. The neighborhood was buzzing with kids, so mine joined in the fun.

I am a nit and this how I clean my garage each spring.

As is my S.O.P. (standard operating procedure), I clean first the recycling area. Its the easiest. This is also home to many spiders. I don't mind the spiders, but since OhPrincess1 got some ticks, OhPrincess2 is a quite scared of them. Cleaning this area makes a lot of spiders homeless.

I like to clean my workbench next. It has a maple top and is quite handsome. This also gives me a place to put my Diet Dr. Pepper and a radio. Since Rochester FINALLY got a real rock station, I can clean my garage to some good tunes!

I discovered that I missed a bottle of fluid with water in it last fall. It was a cleaner to be used in the pressure washer. This particular fluid appears to be strong enough to eat paint because it ate the paint off the bottom of the cabinet it was in. Yikes! I cleaned it up with water, but the sludgy paint in the bottom was really a mess. Note to self: double check the garage in the fall for bottles of stuff.

With the workbench squeaky clean, I turned my attention to organizing and removing the contents of the garage. I am a bit of a nit, but I like my garage clean from wall to wall. Cob web and dust bunny free is my motto! As OhCountess likes to describe it, "It looks like we are having a garage sale!" Everything must go! (outside)

It takes a while to put away things that can be put away and then move the larger items outside, but by this time, OhCountess had returned home.

By the time the last item had been either moved outside or put away, we looked to the west. FANTASTIC! I thought to myself, a thunderstorm is approaching. And it looked dark. My plans were dashed to complete the job. As is customary in a nit cleaning of the garage, the last step in the process is to pressure wash the floor with soap and water and the squidgy it to shiny perfection.

DAMN IT!

Oh well, that will have to wait a week or two. Tomorrow we have to our first graduation party of the season. Here's the final picture. I had hoped it would be from the outside, but with the storm approaching we just ran into the house. As for the mound in the middle, the Mrs told me that much of it is going to Goodwill or garage sales. We can only hope.