So... have brought back a trailerload plus stuff in the car from Mum and Dad's place. Have tried to be strict about it being only useful or treasured items. I made up a "trailer cage" from some sheets of steel and wire mesh that will contribute to building an improved chookpen. Inside it was a couple of Dad's bench saws that Hubby could put to good use, but whether we keep them or they go to my sister in the long term is yet to be decided. And I filled up the gaps around it with potted plants, and put a large compost bin over the top to keep the rain off the saw. The compost bin will go to very good use here. 🙂
The trailer also got used to send one load of general rubbish and one of 12 car tyres to the tip... there's going to be another load of car tyres in the future, but they're currently in inaccessible positions. Not as inaccessible as they were though, now that we've removed some of what was in front of them.
We mananged to open up the front doors of Dad's shed. We didn't know where the key for it was, but "Dad being Dad" I'm happy to report that he'd put it somewhere very logical, so it didn't take long finding it. 🙂
I'm not sure when they were last opened, possibly 1980-ish. That's where I found a lot of everyday household "memory joggers". Odd and somewhat unsettling experience. BUT the good news is, Dad has everything in that section stored in a pretty orderly manner, which will make it much easier to sort through. Big relief for me. I won't tackle too much of that until my sister has a chance to be there with me, but we did pull out a few antique items that we really weren't comfortable with leaving there, and I moved a few small items of desirable furniture into the house, both to make room to move in the shed, and so that my sister and I can more easily decide between us who gets which.
And now back here... back to the challenge of clearing our own "junk" stuff so that we have a place for the "treasures". I've come to the conclusion that I probably need to clear out most or all of the shipping container in our backyard as storage for some of Mum and Dad's things. Specifically a few large items that are going to my sister, but she's currently in a rented house that has no room for them. She's been hoping to find a place to buy, but that hasn't eventuated yet, and we can't assume it will do so in time to move her things to a permanent home. The shipping container currently holds a mixture of furniture and building materials for our long delayed major renovation. The latter may need to stay in there, the former either need to come into the house or be moved on to new owners.
