...A chick came walkin' through the door that I have never seen before, at least I never saw her...

[hazelchaz]

Photos online:
Old storage, part 1: Sorting through treasures and trash (29-Aug-2009)
Old storage, part 2: Surplus fabric and projects (29-Aug-2009) et seq.
My elder older sister Dorothy has a big sledgehammer because that's what it takes to get one of the sliding latches to slide.

Grand plans and harsh reality ran smack into each other last weekend, as I met Dorothy to work on clearing out my parents' storage closets. We had a marvelous scheme to toss all of the saleable stuff into one pile, all of the trash in another, and making roundtrips between there and appropriate destinations until the place was empty.

The problem we ran into was that it wasn't just trash, stuff to donate somewhere, and easily-sold treasures in the units.

We did find a bunch of fabric and craft supplies -- we've identified linen, cotton solid, cotton print, denim, corduroy, fleece, thermal, quilted, polyester, polyester blend, polyester blend knit, spandex & lycra, upholstery, unfinished projects, finished projects, notions, 12" pillow forms, 14" pillow forms, 16" pillow forms, 18" pillow forms... My intention is, with mom's approval, to give this all away to people who want to make stuff from it. Stuff that's for specific near-term projects might stay, but 99% of it will be passed onto someone who'll appreciate it (and do something with it in the next year or so).

Obviously, the primary recipient will be missmea, generally she gets first dibs on things. We saved out this coat for her, for example. (left)

We found a number of old patterns. Maria found over half a dozen that she intends to make clothes from, mostly for herself but one or two pieces will be for her friend Jen. (right)

library_lynn had gone through the fabric to look for things Maria might like. Mari went through and found a few more. The bolt of fabric in the background is all muslin, suitable for mockups -- which is exactly what Mom had bought it for in the first place. (left)

And it's not just random "this looks interesting" magpie acquisitiveness -- she already started matching up fabric to patterns. (right)

The pattern in the lower right corner of the pattern is in an envelope addressed to my grandma (she sent away for it from The American Weekly) and the address has a city and "L.I." What's L.I.? Long Island. For local addressing, you wouldn't bother putting the state (New York) on the envelope... you can tell this is years before postal Zones, let alone the famous Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP).

There's quite a lot of fabric and supplies. More than one carload, I'd say. What you see here is the staging for my second load -- I'd already taken a bunch of stuff, and boxes of books, and Ikea "Ivar" pieces, and a load of trash too. (left)

So if we're going to give it all away, we need more people who're interested in it.

neo_serenity went through the first load with a costumer's eye, and found a bunch of fabric that she can use for cosplay purposes soon enough. (right)

And ladymaxstarr, who helped us identify fabric types, found a great number of things. She's little, so she only needs a small amount of fabric to make something she can wear -- and she has a little nephew as well. (left)

As it happens, my plans for the next day included being around a few dozen costumers, so I brought the patterns and a few pieces of fabric there. Fran Wasielewski fell in love with one of the pieces of fabric, and a pattern as well, and everyone pawed through the pattern box -- I think a quarter of them went right then. (right)

And then there's the choral sheet music. Mom was in the church choir, in the Orange Coast Master Chorale, and other singing groups. She accumulated a goodly amount of liturgical, sacred, and other churchly music -- not just Handel's Messiah, but Bruckner, Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and more. I know sheet music is expensive to buy, so what made sense to me is to donate it all to the church. (left)

Visiting the old church was a blast from the past, big time. I don't remember that white and red cross on the sign for the place... but that lovely lawn on the hill that I remember rolling down as a small boy in my sunday best is still there. The new trees on the parish lawn have matured nicely; I think they chopped down some of the tall eucalyptus in the back of the property, but on the whole the church is doing nicely.

The challenge in all of this is to be respectful of my mom's feelings without actually bringing it all back to her house. (And ideally without having her come out to the storage place, because that would just slow us down.) So my emphasis has been on giving things away in situations where there's a personal connection -- family, friends, the church we used to attend every Sunday (that's as old as I am -- it was built the year I was born, a year before we moved to California), et cetera.

My intention is to start bringing things to Coral Cafe in Burbank, about 10pm Thursday nights, that are free to a good home. I might alternate fabric and books. Stay tuned (and watch my Foob, if you've got me on your Facebook list).

The other interesting thing that happened recently is I have a Costco card again, and spectacles have been ordered. We're piggybacking on Mom's account (and we'll be paying half of the renewal fees, of course). One of the first orders of business was to put in for new glasses for myself and Lynn, because we figured even with the cost of the Costco membership it would be cheaper than what we've been paying... and as you may recall, I'm on my previous prescription's pair because last year's glasses were clobbered or lost.

So the new glassses will look a lot like the pair I'm wearing here.

Lynn's excited about the Costco situation, because of the various discounted contactor arrangements they have. We may be getting new windows at the house in the next year or two.

I'm a little blasé about it all. I used to have a Price Costco membership, which used to be a Price Club membership (named after Mr. Price, the founder, same guy who was behind White Front Pharmacy back in the day), but it lapsed ages ago. I'm usually skeptical about the "savings" you get shopping at the Hundred Dollar Club, because if you buy ten pounds of peanut butter and only eat two pounds of it you've spent too much and wasted food as well. And usually I could figure out a way to go with a cardholder (such as Mom) if there was somehing I just had to have from Costco. But the low-overhead optical department (compared to the prices at LensCrafters) is starting to change my mind...

Comments

[fairegoddess.livejournal.com]

I love Costco optical! My last two pairs have been from there, and I couldn't be happier. Their bagels are also tasty, and freeze very well. :)

[alec-orrock.livejournal.com]

We just bought a new TV at the local Costco last week. It replaced the old "tube" screen in Pam's office room. Only one more "tube" to go then we'll have an all flat screen house.

And I looked at my card just now and realized it's the same card I've had since 2/97, just prior to some con - how odd. ;-) Even still says "Price Costco".

Enjoy!!

[missmea.livejournal.com]

have you thought about seeing if Colleenky can use the sheet music?