Garage Attack

UGH, I so freaking know how that is. My parents are packrats and try to make excuses to keep around piles and piles of the most useless crap.

What I've come to discover is that there are three types of clutter and trash:

1) No-brainer. Empty cardboard box with huge gouges in it, making it worthless? Trash it. No one will complain, and if they do, they need counselling.
2) Things you'll have to ask them about. Since you'll be staying the entire summer, you can probably fill up a few boxes right off the bat and then make them examine one item each day. Be sure to ask, "What is this? What is the next action?" If they're reasonable and the item's purpose is obvious to them, they'll know what to do with it.
3) Things you'll ask them about, and they'll say 'put that back where you found it'. I get this a lot from mine. There are things in this house (no, not sentimental or decorative things, but trash) that they don't even want to deal with. I call this stuff 'mosquito clutter' because even going near it (mentally or literally) is painful. Unless you want to take a chance by going behind their backs and dealing with it yourself, you'll just have to try your best to find someplace to store it. Maybe someday they'll be ready to tackle it.

For a minimum of trouble, try to put as much as possible in the first category. The chances are very slim that someone is actually going to ask where that broken electric razor got to.

Oh, and as for spiders, buy some heavy-duty yellow rubber gloves, the kind you use for cleaning. I haven't met a spider yet that could bite through that stuff.

Yellow rubber gloves! I'll pick some up next time I go out.

I'll definitely see how much stuff I can get into the no-brainer trash. We have so many empty boxes and random broken items that its a wonder why they didn't just throw the crap out to begin with. :?

its a wonder why they didn't just throw the crap out to begin with. :?

-"Nichole"

I know, right? Makes me mad to watch them do it. Like that extra step (forming a 'things to take to the dump' box, throwing it in the trash and hoping for the best, or something) is just too freaking strenuous for them.

I just finished cleaning out the kitchen cabinets. Time: half an hour. They have two cans of coconut milk. Coconut milk. WHAT DO YOU EVEN DO WITH COCONUT MILK?

They have two cans of coconut milk. Coconut milk. WHAT DO YOU EVEN DO WITH COCONUT MILK?

-"FekketCantenel"

My Dad has several bottles of wine in the kitchen. However, due to medical conditions he's not allowed to drink and my mother believes alcohol is disgusting/against her beliefs and thus doesn't drink. I don't drink myself (I'm not 21 and I've had several threats of 'punch in the face' from my mother should I start drinking), so its been sitting out there for a few years now. So I really know the feeling.

Outside that, my parents buy in bulk so I try not to go out into the kitchen often. We have boxes upon cans of food that are all the same. My mom bakes a lot, so the sugar and stuff are okay to buy in bigger packages, but do you really need 50 cans of each corn, peas, green beans, etc?!