Life is like a garage full of crap, you never know what you're gonna get

In November I moved into my boyfriend's house. Before that I was living with my two friends Amber and Beth (they are sisters, but that isn't relevant to the story, it's just a fun fact). And before that I lived with my best friend Jen.

Jen and I lived together for about 7 years, all through college where we met and then once we moved back here we lived together 2 more years. We lived well together, we got along great, it worked out fabulously. Most of what we owned was owned jointly (even our crazy pets) and when the time came for us to go our separate ways, her because she was moving in with her fiance and me because, well, she was moving in with her fiance, we decided who got what based on who needed it, more or less. Brad had a lot of stuff Jen and I had so I ended up with a lot of the household items, dishes, furniture, decorative pieces, washing machine and dryer, etc. We knew Jen was going to move in with Brad but my decision to live with Amber and Beth was a pretty last minute decision.

Our lease was up the first week of May so, that last week we moved Jen to Brad's and me to Amber and Beth's. It was almost like a divorce except we didn't hate the other person and we weren't married, but whatevs. A lot of the stuff I got was not needed at Amber and Beth's because they already had it, dishes, furniture, decorations, washing machine and dryer, blah blah blah. So most of my things stayed packed up and in the garage, except my bedroom furniture and clothes. The garage was huge so it was no big deal to store my stuff there and since we didn't know how long I would be living there, there was no point in getting rid of anything.

Six months rolls by and at this point I am hardly ever at home because I am always over at Mike's house anyway. Living with Amber and Beth was easy, I got along with both of them...of course that could be because I was hardly ever there...and in November their lease was up. They needed to know if I was going to continue to live there and they wanted to change to a month to month lease instead of the six month they had before. I talked things over with Mike and we decided it just made more sense for me to move in with him since I was there all the time anyway and I was basically paying rent so my cats had a place to live and my stuff had a place to stay.

Once again I packed up my bedroom and clothes and move that over to Mike's. At the time, Mike had another friend, Little Jon, living with him as well and Little Jon had his shop out in the garage. There was no room for most of my things and again Mike had most of the items I had stored at Amber and Beth's, dishes, furniture (total boy furniture, blech), washing machine and dryer. I did unpack some items that had been stored at Amber and Beth's: dishes, decorations and furniture like bookcases, you know, for books, side tables, and blankets and towels.

*I am not sure why boys don't ever seem to have decent towels or blankets or shower curtains or bathmats and usually lack any kind of wall decor. It is safe to say, you can now tell Mike lives with a woman, even though there is not an ounce of pink anywhere and no doilies. But there is ALWAYS toilet paper on the roll, clean dishes in the cupboard, and candles that make things smell nice.

Since Little Jon was living there and taking up the garage with his crap, I decided to leave a lot of my boxed up belongs at Amber and Beth's. It was cheaper than renting a storage unit, their garage was huge and most importantly, they didn't care.

The other day I got a message from Amber telling me that Beth is movingback to Reno at the end of the month and she, Amber will be moving into an apartment at the end of the month. And of course this meant that I need to get my stuff out of their garage. Little Jon is no longer living here and he has moved his shop out of Mike's garage. There is more room but there is still a lot of random crap out there.

This weekend Mike and I tackled the garage with the intent of getting rid of a lot of stuff. He had boxes in the garage that he had packed two moves ago. He has moved twice since he originally packed those boxes and hasn't ever opened them, he has also lived in this house for 2.5 years. That should tell you how much he really needs some of the stuff he has out in the garage. There are also boxes full of paper that needs to be sorted into recycling and shredding.

We were out there for several hours and accomplished a lot. We got rid of a whole truckload of useless shit and there is almost enough room now to park two cars in the garage where before you couldn't even get one in there. The box of bathroom stuff had vitamins that expired 12/99. Needless to say this was an OLD box. There is a large pile of stuff that needs to be taken to the dump, once that is cleared out, the garage is basically organized. And next weekend we can move all my stuff from Amber and Beth's garage into Mike's.

Some of the highlights of the day were:
*Snow...seriously, wtf? It hardly snows here during the deepest part of winter and we are in freaking MARCH!
*The box full of bathroom stuff, including lotion that obviously belonged to a girl, thermasilk hair spray and hair bleach (I am not blond and I have never been blond...). There was also an unopened men's shaving cream.
*The Maxim calender from 2005


*And....wait for it, wait for it...a pair of women's panites. AH HA HA HA! They were not my panties, mine are way cuter! Mike was a little embarrassed and quickly tossed them in the trash. But don't worry, I fished them out just for this photo op :)





Yeah, they both got trashed.

Shhh, Mike doesn't know I snapped some photos when he went inside for a break and he knows I blog, but hasn't found it yet ;)