Dear Lee,

We finally had to clean the garage. It has been years since we took everything out and painted walls, washed floors, and reorganized. We have remodeled the garage with lots of locked metal storage cupboards so we can safely store some of our collectibles. Our city gets snow and temperatures below zero and over 90 degrees, but the garage never gets below 40.

What did we find, what did we discard, and what can we safely store? Discards included old paint, solvents, outdated poisons for the garden, motor oil, a gasoline can, and some fireworks-all sent to a special waste collection center. The ordinary trash pick-up took away old rags, an electric clipper with a bad cord, rusty wire fencing, and rusty garden stakes. We are safer now from fire hazards and infected cuts.

We found and upgraded some “collectibles to save.” Hidden treasures included McCoy pottery vases, pin holders for flower arrangements, a set of Japanese flower-arranging tools in a silk case, teakwood bases for figurines or vases, two old fold-up bikes, an old sprinkler, the trunk featured at the beginning of our Discovery TV shows, a Cleveland newspaper boy’s 1920s wooden wagon, and an orange plastic sprinkling can from the 1960s. My father’s old workbench full of tools is now a table to use for potting plants. (We saw some workbenches offered for sale at a flea market for over $300 each). Some of the tools are old and valuable planes, rulers, and levels and have been moved inside the house. Now we have hooks to hang tools, shelves for boxes of whatever, and lots of room.

We are still deciding what to put into the storage areas. Dolls and toys would hate the garage environment. Wood might warp from change of humidity or temperature. Paper and textiles could get moldy from high humidity. So we will keep glass, plastic, some ceramics, and baskets in the new space. Silver would be okay for short stays if wrapped in tarnish-proof fabric.

The new garage looks beautiful. We hope the hundreds of plastic pots and half-bags of potting soil, bent garden stakes, padded wrapping blankets, and broken dishes for mosaics stay away. But our best find, a metal folding chair designed by Russel Wright that has been hiding behind the heater, made it all worth while.