The Warehouse

I get asked all the time to store stuff for people -- we have a 2 car garage with extra storage space on both sides.  I politely but firmly say NYET -- I have too much of our own crap -- last thing I want is to be the repository for the crap of others...

As with most rules in life, there are exceptions. In my case, those exceptions are the Ds and their men. Beginning last year, our garage became the storage spot for the many gifts from the big, fat, Colombian wedding.  A few months later, after D1 and Joey bought their house, D1 learned of a designer couch, for sale from a local woman rabbi who was moving from Pinecrest to the Grove. Apparently it was a $5K couch for sale for a fraction of that -- and D1 pounced. The couch has been crowding our living room for many months.

They thought the house would be finished in June, and so began ordering stuff -- which came to my garage. After a while, the garage became packed from floor to ceiling -- just barely enough room for Wifey's vehicle.

Well today, the exquisite purge took place. The movers fetched the couch and the many, many boxes -- as I write, they're en route to D1 and Joey's new house up in Shorecrest -- NE Miami.  One exception remains. Joey's folks had a beautiful round glass table on a metal base -- it's in the side of our garage, and was to become the new D1 and Joey table, but D1 decided against it.

I offered it to the moving crew -- the thing was probably thousands of dollars when it was new. The crew leader thanked me, but said the table was too big for any of their abodes. So I took pix of it and offered it to Rabbi Yossi. Chabad rabbis have a listserve -- we gave away a breakfront that my in laws had bought in NYC in the early 60s that way -- it was fetched by a newlywed rabbi and his wife from Coral Springs. I assume the glass table will find a new home.

I so admire my nephew Henry and his wife Val. They are extreme non clutter people.  They have one or two tchotchkes, but that's it. If someone buys them a gift, they politely accept it, and the next day either donate or return it. When we were all at a winery in Napa together, I spotted a cool wooden sign from the place, and offered to buy it for them as a memoir of our visit. Henry thanked me but said it would most assuredly NOT be there for more than a day. I thought that way cool.

Joey and D1's place has no garage. They're happy about that -- they'll put in a carport, for bad weather, but realize garages are only gathering places for crap -- collections of stuff that either have to be moved, or trashed eventually. They want to follow Henry and Val's lead.

Wifey and I are headed to the new place tonight for the first shabbat dinner. We'll bring in food, and sit on folding chairs, but we will toast the new life they'll share together in that new place.

We saw it Sunday -- every window looks out on a view of gorgeous ancient oak trees. Many of the trees are over 100 years old -- the city told the developer they'd be fined six figures if they took them down.  Maybe someday grandkids can climb them...

But for now, there is a bit less clutter here, and I love that. But more importantly -- the stuff is in the new house, where it belongs.