MITMM and Being a Good Human

This week is a busy one – final week of a summer class that has been kicking my butt. (Does anyone remember why I, the one with the Fine Arts degrees, decided to become an Information Scientist?). So my project has to do with making a dent in the mountains of crap amazing things in the garage. We put on our weekly list – “empty one box.” This becomes the house that Jack built because one must sort said crap amazing things into the proverbial KEEP, DONATE, and THROW AWAY piles. And I need a serious 12-step program for the whole KEEP part.

This is my mother’s fault.

Certainly Dr., I’d be happy to tell you more.

Mother dislikes old things. And her definition of old can be anywhere from 3 days to, at maximum, 3 years. Granted, she grew up “with out” and what she and my grandmother had, was many times, handed down. It makes her feel good to be able to have not only the things she needs, but wants. She’s not extravagant. She has very good taste. She replaces on a rotating basis.

I once saw a beautiful dress and commented on it. “Oh, I had one just like that,” said mother. Old movie magazines fascinate me. “Oh, I once subscribed to those,” said mother. Christmas ornaments from my childhood. “Oh, sold those in a garage sale,” said mother.

Do you understand my problem?

So I’m trying to deal my packratification and clean out the garage so that Dennis can work on the 120 year old tin covered trunk of his grandmother’s this fall. My goal is to give him a workshop space. He gave me a scrapbook loft (300 square feet – thankyouverymuch) – so I’d like to return the favor.

OK – where was I…

One of the boxes that was brought in from said garage yesterday was filled with sewing notions (and probably more – not unpacked yet). I thought this would be a good time to get my grandmothers sewing basket cleaned up, so as to have somewhere to put said notions.

Well, after steaming with my Shark,

vacuuming with my archaeologist tools,

cleaning, replacing and renailing, it at least seems viable. It’s not particularly aesthecially pleasing, being a circa 1975 JC Penney model, but it was something that I remember her getting as a present one christmas and I want to keep it. (There's that K word again.) And things don’t have to be perfect right? It IS utilitarian – if I can get the @#%& hinges to work.

The other box had a bunch of T-shirts in it. The ones that I swear I’m gonna make that stadium blanket out of. So they get washed and dried to get the garage smell gone. I made 3 templates – 12X12, 8X8 and 6X6. You professional quilters out there feel free to chime in. I’m flyin’ by the seat of my pants here. Not sure how all this will work together, especially working with the T-shirt material, but I’m one of those hard-headed learn by doing kinda people.

One step at a time –

1.Cut graphic or logo from T-shirt.

2. Cut big square from back of T-Shirt to hem and use as garage towels

3. Figure out what to do with bag o’ scraps of T-Shirts.

I’m trying so hard to keep things out of the landfill. Obviously, these scraps aren’t wearable. So off to Google. I found The Good Human which tells me that I can take the bag o' scraps to Goodwill or Salvation Army and they will give them to Ragsorters where the “unusable garments, especially cotton t-shirts, are turned into wiping and polishing clothes used by a variety of industries and sold to consumers. She adds that other textiles are shredded into fibers used to make new products, such as sound-deadening materials for the automotive industry, archival-quality paper, blankets and even plastic fencing.”

Awesome!

I also found these pillows made from vintage clothing tags. Hmmmm…something to file for later.

So - One -finish writing the technical manual for the database I designed (that'll be easy -sshhhhhyeah!) and Two - finish defenestrating the T-shirts and maybe Three - tackle another box.

It's kinda like Christmas in July - but a lot more work!

Love ya, mean it!

Mel

PS - adding lots of cool blogs to visit. I'm just in awe of the fascinating people who are letting me glimpse into their lives. Check them out at left.