Ah, yes, my mother-in-law is visiting this week. (Notice the lack of cheers and applause.)
My husband and I are preparing for baby by cleaning out, donating, and organizing our house. This includes all closets, cupboards, drawers, and yes, even the garage.
Last year my sister-in-law and mother-in-law moved out of their apartment due to financial reasons. My SIL moved in with us. And my MIL moved in with a friend. And some how, like my SIL wasn't enough, all their "stuff" moved into our house as well, well, the rest of it, that didn't make the move the first time they moved into a smaller place four years ago.
This "stuff" took over our beautifully organized and space-ish garage, and turned it into a storage container. For over a year now, or if you count the stuff from before, almost four years now.
I was surprised when the closets and cupboards and drawers only took a week to do. And so I decided to head into the garage for a peak last week.
Bad idea.
Thankfully, I was able to pull my pregnancy powers over my husband, and he agreed to have his mom come up for a week to go through her items in the garage to donate, throw away, or take down with her to her new apartment in another city.
I have mentioned before, but my MIL is a germ freak. Bad. Like, she keeps her purse in the trunk of her car because it is too dirty to keep in the main part of the car, where your feet are...
And, on top of that, she is a pack rat. I know, doesn't really fit the stereotype, but boy is she ever!
I knew her cleaning out the garage was going to be a issue. But, I really want my garage back. And living in the desert, it is either really super hot, really super windy, or really super cold. It would be a dream to be able to have my car live in the garage where I can easily get baby in and out without regard for the outside conditions.
Before we went to pick her up for the week, we made two piles in the garage. One was our stuff that we accumulated over the last year and didn't have a proper place to put them in due to all the apartment stuff. This pile was small. Fit nicely into a corner. The other pile was my MIL's stuff. And that literally took up 3/4 of the floor of our garage. It was disgusting.
What is more disgusting? My MIL has yet to throw a single thing away, and this is day four of her working in there.
I mean really, I opened a box and saw old, dried up paints. Nothing but dead craft paint. And yesterday, I saw the same box, nicely tapped, labeled "craft paints" and in her "to still store here" pile.
No way Jose!
Those babies are toast once she is gone.
And I am sure a lot of other things will be too. My husband and I disagree on what of hers will stay in our garage and what will go away. I want it all gone. He wants most gone.
But my thinking is that if it won't fit into their new apartment now, it will never fit again. What good is a big box of dried paint containers in my garage, when she lives 150 miles away? Can't do crafts with it being in the garage.
Oh man.
If only I listened to my mother and really understood that you don't just marry your husband, you marry his family as well.
Then I would have had to the notion to move far away right after the wedding. Far enough away where the ability to house crap in my garage would not be an option.
