It took us years before we could bring ourselves to clean up the old shed. Well the shed itself wasn’t all that old, but the stuff inside it was there because it had nowhere else to go.
It belonged to my brother, the stuff that is.
He was a builder and made props for musicals and shows all around the district. After each show, the props would return to the shed and be packed away as a memorial to the many hours of painstaking work he put into each piece.
I could understand his reluctance to part with them; they were one-offs and as such, had limited usefulness. Here was one such prop be made for a performance of the “Little Mermaid”. An elaborate construction of an underwater grotto constructed on plywood but coated with polystyrene foam into which he had placed various objects such as lanterns and objects you might imagine in such a place.
But once his time as a builder came to an end, as the result of rheumatoid arthritis, the shed remained a place stuffed full, you could barely move within it, it was so packed tight, I started to make overtures that the shed could be now used for other purposes.
He finally acknowledged his limitations, and we decided on the clean up. Some of the props he managed to send to new homes but most of it we had to cut up and dump. In the end, and I’m still working on it, we took four loads to the dump, filled the garbage each week, and eventually cleared the shed to the point where it now can the potential to be a rather useful space for us to use.
Under the shed was a stack of old timber, which has been cleared out as well, and much of it cut up for firewood. I have months of firewood to get through so most afternoons I set the fire ablaze, and slowly I am getting through the stack, but it seems never-ending, though it is nice on a calm afternoon as the sun sets to sit by the fire and enjoy a drink or two.
The clean up has a way to go, but the end result is going to be worth it, as I will have a space to relax and a view across the river flats to bask in.
Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2020/09/10/tale-weaver-292-clean-up-10th-september/
Envy you your shed………………
I know I’m lucky even though at present its a bit of a mess as we turn it into something functional.
The clean up is always worth the effort.
I had a shed when I was a kid. We moved to a new house, and the twelve year old boy moving out with his parents, left everything in it and showed me all the secret hidey holes. It wasn’t a very big shed, but for a six-year-old tomboy it was an absolute treasure trove.
My old shed we are making into something livable or at least more pleasant to be in.