New Orleans, LAIt's amazing how much a house can hold and how little of it you actually need.
I disappeared for a while into the nether regions of our house. My mother and I have been a two woman team, clearing out debris, junk, and stashes of crud. My dad joins us in the evenings and weekends when he's free from work.
Our priorities are all based around deadlines. FEMA said it would stop picking up big debris in our neighborhood this weekend. That meant clearing out the backyard of broken fence, overgrown vines, downed trees, and the structurally suspect wooden fort that had seen better days (about 20 years ago).
Yesterday our push to get out all the huge stuff paid off. FEMA came by and took away everything we had put out into sorted piles. Whoohooo! We did a happy dance.
there are other deadlines that our lives revolve around.
Garbage pickup is on Saturdays and there is a requested limit of no more than eight garbage bags. We are going to exceed that limit. As it is, we can hardly get out of the back door because of our mountain of full garbage bags. It's also getting difficult to go out of the front door because boxes full of garbage from the attic that are stacked in the entry way.
Goodwill only seems to accept donated goods on Mondays. The front part of our house is filled with things that we want to give to Goodwill. It was a good day when we heard that the drop-off center was open and accepting donations. We showed up with a completely full car. The trunk was stuffed, the back seat too, and my mom sat with items under her feet and covering her lap. The Goodwill people didn't quite know where to put it all. Next Monday they are accepting another round of donations. We might have to make two car trips. I hope they don't lock the door when they see our car pull up.
Possessions tie people down and trap them; our situation is becoming a literal example of that.
We might run out of things to get rid of next week. That's our hope!
