Between work and home, things have been pretty busy as of late. Our current involved, though uninteresting, adventure is unboxing stuff in storage. The process goes something like this:

1. Dig through completely packed storage unit.
2. Pull out heavy boxes.
3. Load car with boxes.
4. Unload boxes into garage.
5. Open up boxes.
6. Look inside boxes and say “why the hell did we pack that?”
7. Repeat

It is amazing how much stuff we have. Pots, pans, sheets, old electronics, 60 different phone cords, pagers, cell phones, video game system, clothes, clothes we haven’t worn since 1990, worn out shoes, magazines, glasses, mugs, serving trays, roasters, and on and on.

Some of the stuff, like the tools, we are glad to see, since we now have a proper space to use them. Other stuff, like old clothes, are easy — donations to the Top Drawer thrift store. It’s all the middle ground stuff that is harder. Do we keep the electronics or give them away? Is there someone we know who could use some of this stuff? Toss, donate, or keep? If keep, where do we put it?

Our goal isn’t to empty the storage locker (locker is a misnomer–it’s a 10 x 20 x 10 unit–completely filled, floor to ceiling). We still need the storage because we aren’t going to unbox any of the books. Instead, we are trying to wade though 20 years of stuff and make decisions on what stays and what goes.

Part of the problem is that I have a very large “antique” computer collection. Amigas, Ataris, Kaypros, TIs, Apples, and so on. All of them are working, and have a bunch of software, so I don’t want to just give them away. And I’m really not interested in dealing with the process of selling them (especially with the amount of fraud on the auction sites these days). Evelyn found a local computer museum, affiliated with Goodwill, so I’m thinking of working out some sort of permanent loan arrangement with them. We’ll see. At least they would go to a good home.

Oh god, and the papers. During our original packing process I shredded bags and bags of old paperwork. Most of this was used as packing filler — we have filled up our 90 gallon recycle bin four times over with just shredded paper! I wonder what the recycle guy thinks when unloading our bin? All it contains is shredded paper and beer bottles. And yet, we still have boxes of papers. Old expense reports. Old bills. Old everything in between. 

Some of the stuff is easy–if it’s over 7 years, it goes. But some of it, like 4 year old medical bills, I’m leery of getting rid of (especially after my recent encounter with Delta “whoops, we lost your 4 year old claim” Dental). At this point, I’m going to box together everything of a certain age, seal it up, and put “destroy on 2012″ on it. What a pain in the ass.

Going through all the old bills reminded me how much money we churned through. Utterly mindboggling. Exercise equipment, electronics, appliances, services (cell phones), big car payments, video games, DVDs. At one point my head was almost spinning–$700 here, $1200 here, $120 here. No wonder the economy was doing so well!