Busy Tuesday

I’ve been sorting through things in my basement with the intention of having a friend who hauls away scrap and junk to divide and sell for cash to make ends meet. He’s a good guy and a help to me. I began the task of cleaning the basement about a week ago. This cleaning was really thorough and much deeper than before. It wasn’t my usual rearrangement of items and looking for a way to store things more effectively to give me more room to store more junk, but it isn’t to the point where I sweep and cleanup the dirt and debris from my firewood. This was getting rid of the large pieces that have cluttered my cellar for years. I evaluated things that were stored overhead in the basement rafters since I bought the house thirty-five years ago. There were still things that the original owners had stored there from the building of the house.

I figured that if I had no need in 35 years, they needed to go. I tossed out used pieces of scrap copper and brass from plumbing projects. I threw out aluminum cans, soffit scraps, carpet edging, and door trim; all gone. There were several old “stereos and speakers” from the kids. The radios worked, but not the CD players and speakers. He was willing to take them, so bye-bye. I sent away aluminum handles, pieces of pipe, some was chrome covered and whatever other metal that was taking up room. There were steel rods from a baby crib and half dozen metal rails for beds that were too bent to support the bed slats, box springs, or mattress.

I passed on to him several nearly worn-out, damaged and corroded chisels too far gone to save. Several of the items that had been stored with the chisels in my damp basement were too crusted in rust to be recognizable. I gave him several golf clubs, some wire fencing, and old door handles with their locks and opening mechanisms. I got rid of several of the flimsy aluminum flag poles and an exhaust pipe that miraculously appeared in my yard one summer. (I don’t always get a dirty diaper or a dozen red roses tossed into my yard.)

After he left, I revisited my neighbor who made trim for my handmade Pollyanna board. (His giant, black mastiff growlingly greeted me again.) Now, I’m hoping to have another friend assemble the trim to make an edging for my game board.