Garage Cleaning Adventure
Everything we do together, in life, is an adventure. Garage cleaning was no exception. It’s just another life adventure we shared.
Garage Cleaning
With 40 years worth of stuff piled to the ceiling, this adventure had 2 distinct parts. First, we had to sort through a garage full of stuff including decades of
memories. Then, we had to get rid of all the stuff we didn’t want. This meant giving things away, selling things and hauling things to the dump. Who knew garage cleaning could be so involved? Although there was still lots to do, after a few days hard work, we emptied the garage. We moved everything taken from the garage to the back yard so we could finishing the garage cleaning. Our senior garage cleaning adventure was well underway.
Hauling the Trash
In California, we don’t say “dump.” We take trash to a “transfer station” 
where it’s sorted into categories like green waste, recyclables, hazardous waste, e-waste, metal, mattresses, glass, cardboard and plastic. From there it goes to a land fill or recycling center. While we were cleaning the garage, we found something in every category. We didn’t sort the trash when we were cleaning the garage, but left that up to the transfer station.
Trash Hauling Services
There are 5 large trash hauling companies and over 20 small, private haulers in our area. That’s about 25 trash hauling services in this one county. That number says a lot about the amount of trash being generated locally. When we multiply that amount across the country and the world, that’s a lot of trash.
There were several large, heavy items in our garage what we wanted to throw away. A small, local company gave us a great price, explained how they disposed of each category of junk. As well, they were willing to load everything for us. We like to support local businesses.
This was just the first load of several that Junk Removal Services
hauled for us. At one point, they took 30 large bags of garbage too bulky for us to haul in our car.
Trash Hauling in Our Car
After all the heavy stuff was hauled away, we decided to save some 
money and haul the remaining trash bags away in the our car. The car was full except for the driver’s seat as I drove to the transfer station. The transfer station charged a very reasonable fee. I paid the fee and dumped the trash bags while avoiding a huge loader.
We managed to get the entire garage cleaned out. This led to another adventure. We wanted to use the
space efficiently. We still had lots of stuff to store. So we decided to build a storage loft. That’s our next adventure.
If was fun to share this little senior adventure with you. Click here to let us know your thoughts on this adventure.
What an exciting adventure! It’s amazing how much stuff was in the garage and how much work it took to get it all sorted out. Kudos to you for the hard work!
It’s amazing how much stuff we generate over the years.
We keep it, ‘just in case’ and then keep adding to it.
I have cupboards that need sorting out. Gifts that we couldn’t use or didn’t need, some still in boxes on top shelves keep piling up. Stuff kept in case someone in the family might use it but they don’t. As the youngsters set up home they want to choose new things rather than make do.
You have inspired me to start on our cupboards and wardrobes. It’s a good feeling when the clutter is cleared.
We are beginning a kitchen remodel so now we also are getting into cupboards. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Hey James,
Thank you for sharing! It’s funny because I just helped my cousin clean his garage about 2 weeks ago and it reminded me of that. You are right, everything we do in life is an adventure and you never know what you can find. It’s crazy because my cousin found something that’s been under all his “STUFF” that’s been hiding for over 7 years and it’s a vintage item he was able to sell and make a ton of money from. What a great memory we shared! Thanks for sharing!
Finding stuff like that is fun. It makes up for all the hard work. Thanks for reading and commenting.
What an GARAGE CLEANING ADVENTURE you guys did, it’s funny how quickly we can store many things in our garage, most of the time is because we feel attach to an item and we store it rather than just getting rid of it. I noticed at the same time that I was reading your article, I realized how many things I have stored in my garage that I probably no longer occupy, I think I will have to have my own GARAGE CLEANING ADVENTURE myself.
Thank you for sharing this post I really enjoy it
We still have a lot of junk but its better. Thanks for commenting.
I love joining you on your adventures and reading about your garage cleaning, has inspired me to tackle clearing out in my house as well. It is very interesting to see that in California your have “transfer stations”, which means you do not have to sort and categorize what you are going to dump. This must save a huge amount of time when doing clearing.
Having a trash hauling company is another great service, that I wish we had where I live in Italy. I look forward to joining you on your loft storage building adventure.
The great thing about the hauling company was that they did the lifting. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.
Congrats on clearing out your garage! I know how wonderful it can feel to reclaim that space.
My sweetie and I moved into a shared home a few years ago, and it involved both downsizing our total square footage and losing a full basement! There were a lot of things that got stashed away in the garage until we committed to our own garage cleaning adventure. I’m happy to report that we got it cleared and are still using the garage for our cars!
Good luck with the next steps. Not sure what you mean by a “storage loft”, but we added shelving to the ceiling and upper parts of the walls to get the most out of the storage space.
We added a 40ft x 4ft. Storage area off the floor. That means we didn’t get rid of a lot of stuff. Thanks for comment.
I was just thinking the other day how my whole house could get a good clean up. I did it a few years ago, and rented a huge bin. It’s crazy when you think of how quickly crap adds up.
I’m sure if you started accumulating boxes and items starting today, for the next 40 years, you would probably have twice as much. Seeing your pics and reading about all the bags you filled, is making me feel guilty for not doing it myself, lol.
Those picks were the only ones my wife would let me post. The other ones of the garage were too embarrassing. It j ust feels good to clean things out once in a while. Thanks for reading in commenting
Hi there James,
I read your post and it brought me memories of the day we vacated from the house we stayed for over 2 decades and I was assigned the task of cleaning the garage. Fortunately for you, you got the help of trash hauling services. I, on the other hand, had to do everything on my own although I enjoyed the task because it helped me relive many memories from the things I interacted with in there. I would say garage cleaning, especially a garage that has been used for years, is somewhat therapeutic.
I would agree with you in terms of working alone. The problem was that my wife and I worked together for a lot of it and totally disagreed on what to keep and what to junk. If a marriage can make it through a garage clean-up, it is solid. Thanks for reading and commenting.
This reminds me of each of my spring cleanings. Although I regularly tidy up the basement and the garage, a lot of things have always accumulated over the winter. Thinking about whether to throw this or that basement overcrowded. Luckily, I love to tidy up and throw away or share things I don’t need, so it’s not hard for me.
I think it would have helped us if we had done that annually. Some of the stuff we have had for years so there is an emotional attachment. It was tough, but it’s done. Thanks for taking the time to read and then write a comment.