The big clean-up

Whether or not it was the experience gained at Andrew and Fiona's, or whether it is because there is a community clean-up campaign starting next Monday, the time has come to clean up the dreaded garage, where everything that did not have its own place was put over many years.

Led by the enthusiasm of Michael and tempered somewhat by me who does not like to throw anything out - in case I might need it some time in the future, we have spent two days burrying down to the floor. Yes! you can now see a lot of the floor and yes! there is a huge pile in the street in front of the house - probably 2 metres by 2 metres and about a metre high. That excludes a large supply of metal objects that needed to be kept separate and for which the scrap metal dealers almost fought each other over to get their hands on it. We even cleared off the large workbench and swept it clean and Michael made good use of the air gun to clean off the dust.

Great care had to be exercised as old things were removed. Red-back spiders abounded and it was a case of use gloves, look behind things before putting your fingers there, have the insect spray handy and wear good shoes to finish them off.

To be honest, we could do the same thing in the next two days and get another large pile, although Michael admits that we have broken the back of it. Then of course there is a large quantity of computer gear under the TV room, courtesy of Andrew and Michael which may have to wait for another ocasion. Michael thinks that we should hire a skip bin and really go to town - maybe that may come eventually!

It has not been so hard to throw things out this time. Perhaps having Andrew's example of being ruthless (or was it Fiona?) has helped and I have come to the realisation that old things from my father which I have not used for 18 years may have now come to the end of their useful life. Nevertheless, progress has been made and I thank Michael for his determination here.