Back in August I finally accomplished one of my goals for 2022, to clean out the garage! (See blogpost here). I knew already then that I had to get on with the next project fairly soon; the storage unit.

All projects like this are rough things to get done. Not only physically but emotionally. The storage unit is full of stuff that belonged to my mom and my grandma. Mom has been gone for 2 years now and grandma for 5. This storage unit has not been open for at least 5 years. But with that said, I need to go through every single box, every single little thing to make sure I don’t miss anything that I want to keep. This is not happening in a day or two. When I did the garage I spent about 5 days in there, took 1/4th of the space at a time.

I had in mind today that I would start looking. I expected to maybe spend an hour there. I knew there was a couple of things I’d seen that I wanted to bring with me home if I could. Well, that turned in to 4 hours and I got a lot done. This is how it looked like when I opened the unit…

Somewhere in there is my huge equestrian locker and that’s my goal to reach… not today or tomorrow but someday. I wanted to know what was in that black box. I thought I knew what it was and wanted it confirmed. I wanted to have that blue saddle carrier with me home and the red christmas trees. Then from there I didn’t know.

Well off to work I went… this is how it looked like half way through, after about 2 hours.

When we moved here we had a good laugh about this thing… do you know what it is?

Its a snow shovel! Yes we brought a snow shovel with us from Sweden 13 years ago. Who in their right mind would think you would have use for something like this in Texas. Today I wish I knew how far out it was in storage and I would have gotten it before the snow last year! I could have used it!!! You bet I will bring it out next time someone mention snow possibilities in the area!

But I am so glad I have gone through box by box so carefully. I have found stuff I didn’t know we had, things that brings amazing memories of my family back to me. I found this little thing for example:

It says “Only for Östen” on the front and “Handmade Tin, BJ, Z9” on the back. Östen was my grandfather. I don’t know who gave this to him, who B.J is but the fact that it’s still here is amazing. It is now hanging in my office and reminds me of my wonderful grandfather! It meant so much for me to find this.

I also found a big poster of my grandmother on stage that I will have framed. Together with it was a smaller picture of her in the same costume. It was a little uneven so I have to straighten it out but I will take it to a professional frame business in Terrell tomorrow to get it preserved. That kind of stuff is things I don’t want to get rid of. I wouldn’t have found it if I wasn’t as thoroughly.
Of course I found a lot of other things that I will keep and more that I will throw away. Some of it will be for sale at some point in time.

I packed my car as full as I possibly could… I only have a Ford Explorer so I will take a couple of things at a time and one day it will be possible to reach the other end of it…

You can barely see any of the work I’ve done once I got everything back in the unit again. That was a little depressing. But I know what I’ve accomplished. I have been able to sort stuff to throw away, sell and keep. So when I get there next time (hopefully tomorrow) I can start take the stuff that I see first and pack that in the car because that is stuff to throw away. Then comes the shit to sell (that will go to the garage) and then when all that has been removed I can take another day with cleanout and see what I can find.

You see the brown and white locker in there… I would love to get those two moved home to my garage. Is there anyone out there that can help me with that sometimes? I don’t think it’s super heavy but I can’t move them by myself and a truck or a trailer would be much easier to have than my car… Please let me know if you can help me with that!

I know I have a long way to go with this project but hey, it’s a start! It’s a job I can only do myself, nobody can help me with it. And I want to do it. The feeling that will be there when it is all done will be amazing!