Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for July 30, 2022

And someday all that junk will be Gene’s…..

Janis a hoarder? Who knew?

It’s a law of nature!

The house I grew up in was small and full. Daddy bought a much larger house. Mama could barely fill 5 rooms of the new dwelling. She got busy. Whatawoman. Soon every wall was covered, every corner filled, and the center had something blocking the way. Just needed about 5 times as much junk.

Stuff expands to exceed the storage space. George Carlin, A Place For My Stuff.

For a minute I thought Arlo was taking pics of Janis – he’s darn lucky he wasn’t!!!

Main reason my car goes in garage – much less room for junk

For the past few years I’ve been trying to go through my stuff and get rid of things. It’s the least I can do for my children. It can be difficult though. There’s always the one question that’s hard to overcome. “What if one day I need this?”

20+ years ago we intentionally bought a home with no attic and a small garage because I saw what happens when you have too much storage space. (You fill it.) Fast forward a few years: I ended up building a yard shed “just for the lawn stuff.” Then a few years after that I bought a boat and so I rent a storage unit “just for the boat.” The shed has the lawn stuff in it alright: I can get the lawn mower in there and close the door if I wiggle carefully. And the storage unit? Every spring and fall when it’s time to take the boat out or put it away I have to go through a 2-hour re-arrange process. At least it gives me a chance to sweep the floor…..

Ah, consumerism at its best.

Because it’s just an extension of the house…, which is a place to store ‘stuff’! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac&t=31s

I got used to moving often (military husband) so never had time to accumulate too much stuff. But now I have been in one place for 28 years and the thought of downsizing is terrifying me. By the way, we just had to get a new TV. Do you know how much dust is behind a TV after 20 years? I do now.

Junk / crap. accumulates in direct proportion to the area available to contain it.

I wasn’t aware that Jimmy knew my wife’s habits.

Yeah. Isn’t that one of Einstein’s laws?

George Carlin!

“STUFF”

Their lives has gotten to the point of being beyond boring!

I think the point is he’s looking at her rear end and saying this.

The same rule applies to closets and clothing sizes.

More than likely…..

We had a two car garage while I was growing up and I can recall very little of that time (my parents bought the house in the early 1970’s and sold it in I believe it was 2016) when we could fit one let alone 2 cars. The last time it was possible was when we shoveled out the house for sale. My brother and his wife now have a house and of course there is no room in the garage for any one of the family of cars they have(our mom lives with them).

The amount of junk you own ALWAYS expands to fill the space available…

I enjoy driving around and seeing $80,000+ worth of vehicles in the driveway and $300 worth of crap filling the garage.

True enough. Get a large storage shed. Much cheaper.

Truer words were never spoken.

I’m downsizing from a 2 bedroom apartment to a one right now. Seems as we get older we’re made more aware of how much stuff we actually own that isn’t necessary for life but carries memories we don’t want to give up.

I live in an “upscale” neighborhood where most of the homes have a 3 car garage. About half of the homes have cars parked in the driveway overnight. I guess that is better than having the junk they store in the garage sitting in the driveway.

America – what a country! Most of us are so well off that we don’t have enough room for our possessions – and that includes my wife and me. We live in an older house which was above average in size back when it was built. It’s now considered to be somewhat considerably smaller than average. We compensate by having three storage units (but we will soon cut it to two).

Oh, well. Renting storage units is cheaper than a new house.

AND we use the one-car garage for one of our cars!

My “two” car garage holds one car, one motorcycle and a couple large roll-a-way tools boxes (retired Auto Tech), how do I even get that much in it? Two 8X10 storage sheds in the back yard.

We have a “get rid of” shed. The shed is used to accumulate all the stuff we decide we don’t want or need anymore. When full, we have a garage sale. It either sells, we give away or trash. Nothing goes back in. Works like a charm.

We’ve moved 13 times during our 57 years of marriage. We adhere to the old maxim: 3 moves equals 1 fire.

I rarely get rid of stuff. When I do, that’s when I start looking for it, and realize I needed it after all.

On a similar train of thought I needed a postage stamp yesterday so bought a book of forever stamps at the mail store. As soon as I got home I found the stamps I looked all over for. I now have 4 books of forever stamps each with only 1 or 2 stamps removed.

The last time I bought forever stamps four years ago and used one. If everyone does that the postal service makes a lot of money.

The only rule about our garage is that it always has to have room to park the car. Leaving an expensive auto out in the elements because you have too much “stuff” is insane!

When we lived in an apartment husband would get upset at how hard it was to get things out of THE closet. We had started our craft business there – raw materials stored in bedroom, processed in kitchen (which also had a tiny washer and a tiny dryer) and finished goods stored in the living room. I would move things on the top shelf of the closet with yard sticks to get what was needed to the front. When he would complain I would say “when we get a house and it is completely filled by what we have here you will understand why things are as they are”.

We bought a house – 3 bedrooms, family room off kitchen, 1/2 basement finished into a den, 1.5 car detached garage – 2 people. The medium bedroom is our home office as well as my work office (accountant). The family room is our main studio space. Garage is his woodworking shop. Finished part of basement stores bolts of fabric cutting table mat boards patterns, plus 2 cabinets for finished goods and games we don’t play. Unfinished part of basement is general shop and also more woodworking – Christmas decorations stored under staircase. Dining room is kept 18th century “at rest” – all furniture against the wall so we can iron fabric for business or whatever else we need to do. About 5 years ago I lost the living room it became his loom room for weaving from mid Jan to mid Dec – I get it back for one month for Christmas deco. Shed in back has our setup for craft shows.

I do get to use the small bedroom for me – it is filled with my teddy bear & friends collection.

I think everyone is missing the joke. The way she is bending over I think the garage is a metaphor for her shorts (and butt).