Thanks to the brilliant combined brain-work of a friend and my mother, I’ve taken a quantum leap forward in taming the mess.   My friend suggested that I rent a storage unit and move everything out, then bring it back piecemeal, sorting as I went.  While the idea of a suddenly empty house was appealing, the thought of paying storage fees for what would largely end up being garbage wasn’t.  (Why, yes, I am of Scottish descent, how could you tell?)

However, my mother came to the rescue (thanx, Mom!) and suggested a slight variant–move out the stuff I know I’m going to keep (i.e. the stuff in the Martha Corner), thus creating room to sort through the unknowns.  A light bulb appeared, thusly:  :lamp:  (only mine was lit,  sorry).  It suddenly all made sense.  My house is like one of those sliding tile puzzles with no empty space.  This would create space.

While I have every intention (desire, even) to use these things, it’s just not possible at the moment, so all they’re really doing right now is being immovable objects in my way.  Most are things that can’t go in the outdoor shed (can’t handle temps ranging from +40 to -40, or not waterproof) so they’re just taking up space throughout the house.  Now they won’t.

So, in a burst of enthusiasm, I rented a 5 x 10 storage unit and loaded up my car.  Okay, so it’s only a Smart Car.  It was still mostly full.  With the help of JR, we managed to get the first load into the unit and squirreled away on a spare set of shelves kindly donated by JR that had been in her unit (coincidentally in the same facility).

I’ll do “before” and “after” pics once there’s an “after” with which to compare the “before”.  For now, feast your eyes on the somewhat blurry pics of the first load into the storage unit (my phone camera doesn’t have a flash, and after all that manual labour I was a bit less than steady).