I choose to start my posts with a pretty photo. This one has nothing whatsoever to do with this post, but I like it and wanted to show it. It's a selection of dressing up outfits Gorgeous Girl had for her birthday recently. She pegged them on the washing line beside Gingerbread House, they looked so pretty lined up like that that I just had to get a photo. And you can also see how fantastically well the sunflowers are doing.Now you'll understand why I wanted to start off with a nice photo, instead of this ...
This is my section of the garage, I call it 'Christmas & Crafts'. The husband often moans that the garage is looking full to bursting and messy. And I must hold my hand up and take the blame. I tend to dump things out in the garage in order to keep the house reasonably tidy.Over the years, Christmas & Crafts has sprawled out and turned into a total mess. I have actually been planning a Big Tidy Up since last year. I determined that once my little Sweet Pea started school, I'd get out there and have a good sort out. It's impossible to go through and chuck things out with a little girl rifling through things and just getting in the way really.
So that's what I've been doing this week, as when I could. I took everything off the shelves and had a good tidy up. As long as I'm in the mood, I really enjoy having a good sort out and getting rid of things. It's the kind of project you have to be in the right frame of mind to do.
Now Christmas & Crafts looks like this, and I know where everything is. Easter & Valentine's are in the box on the top shelf, with Halloween and Christmas being nice and obvious.
A clear floor! Good thing I put the glitterball up, now I've got room to dance around!
So nice to see everything tidy with no clutter or rubbish. 
The garage is never going to be empty or super tidy, but at least it's much better than it was. There is still more to be done, but it's getting there. This was a good start.I got a little sidetracked when boredom kicked in.
Trying out lights under the pretext of 'seeing if they still worked', when really it was just because I wanted to see pretty lights in there.
And then I stumbled upon some lovely things, things that made me stop and smile.The red rose corsage I made for my husband to wear on our wedding day. Well preserved, the colour still obvious.
And the copy of The Times from our wedding day (yes, we married on a Thursday ~ I wanted to be different!). Not even discloured after almost 7 years. 
I still have some of the invitations too. Everything has kept well in a large plastic storage box in the garage. I've put them safely back again, precious things that I want to keep forever. And then I found something I thought was long gone. While on honeymoon in Bath, the husband bought me a pink kettle to use on the hob of the oven. I love my little pink kettle, but somehow over the years, the little whistle from the spout got lost. I've still been using it, but it wasn't the same. When I rootled around in a box I found this funny looking black bobbly thing and was about to throw it out when I suddenly realised .. it was the whistle! Now my little pink kettle sings happily in the kitchen again.
So not only did I purge the garage of junk, I found some lovely things whilst doing it.