Tackling A Long Avoided Job

Saturday evening, after watching various videos on YouTube, I very suddenly got inspiration to start to tackle a job that I've avoided for at least the last two years. Namely, clearing out the garden shed.

There are several reasons why I haven't tackled it, probably the main one being the huge spiders I've seen lurking in there.

Another, is that it was full to the brim with stuff, some of which is LB's baby paraphenalia and I knew that I'd find it tough to finally get rid of it.

However, one of the tasks on Courtney Carver's 21 day declutter challenge, was to tackle unseen clutter, and this job offered the perfect opportunity to complete this task.

I started at about 7 pm, which isn't really a good time to start a big job like that, but I had to be in the mood, and in the mood I was. I'm afraid as often is the case, I just got stuck in and forgot to photograph the 'before', so I'm afraid a little imagination is required here.

Armed with a small hand brush, I pulled things out, swept the cobwebs off and made loose piles around the shed area, according to whether the items were to be donated, tipped or placed back in the shed for more thorough sorting through later.

I was reasonably pleased with the progress I made in just an hour or two.  I pulled out all the baby gear, and took it into the house to sort through properly.

I removed a few items to be taken to the tip along with the bags of garden waste I'd filled the day before, and I retrieved a couple of spare garden chairs, that were tucked away at the back, for us to use now, as we were down to just one old chair in the garden.

Some things did get put back, namely camping gear, beach gear, winter sports gear and the fire basket, coal scuttle and fire companion set, but most of the rest was removed, so that I could move it on to a new home off the property.

I will sort through some of the items that I put back the next time I venture in there, and I'm sure there will be several things that can be donated amongst them.

In addition to what I pulled out on this occasion, there is still a whole heap of gardening items right at the back of the shed to sort through, namely lots of pots, irrigation systems, sieves, tools, wormery, garden canes, bird feeding paraphenalia, etc., etc.  I will get to these eventually, once I have tackled and minimised the 'stuff' in front.

Here's a picture of what it looked like after I'd finished for the day.

You'll just have to trust me when I say that it was a whole lot worse than this before I started, as the 'stuff' was stacked up to the roof.

I am now quite looking forward to hopefully using the shed for gardening purposes again, instead of the storage of junk.

I will probably still store some junk in here, but might be able to house most of it under the built in table at the back, out of the way.

We've had this shed since we got our first allotment about 12 years ago and although it's getting a little dilapidated and it's condition is definitely deteriorating, it is still going strong. Lets hope it lasts for a good few more years yet.

I'll post again on this project when I make more progress.