Let me just get this out of the way. When I get these done, these won’t be my normal mission statement of things I like to write, but this is a platform for me to get my thoughts out overall. Where do I begin, the last few months have had a lot going on. I’ve traveled to several countries, checked off a few boxes on things I should’ve done a long time ago, but just now got to doing them. Those stories and all of that fun are going to come at some point.

Currently though, I’m in the states, in Michigan at what is now my house. Do you know how odd it is for me to say, my house? I’m old enough to have a house, but still saying something like that is still odd. When my grandmother passed away in February, I knew life was going to be different. I knew I would have so many more responsibilities, but man, I have a lot going on.

I was prepared in some ways for an issue to come up everyday, but even with that, there is so much to do. My grandparents had a lot of stuff. I mean they did live in this house for almost 30 years, so the fact they have a lot of their stuff, along with the random things I left here, it is a lot. My biggest issue has been, where do I begin?

In any case, I’m still moving on with it. This entire experience has shown me how unprepared I am for basic life. I know how to do things, but dealing with a house, I got nothing.

I started with terms I’ve heard people use, why not do an estate sell. A friend of my dads brought someone over. A lovely lady who gave me information, explained her brand, my issue? She takes 35%, plus charges me a separate fee for her research and other stuff. Sorry, but 35% is a little bit much. I know they have a lot of work to do, but couldn’t they do 20% am I off on that?

The Learning Process of Random Things

My house is in Southfield, did you know you need to have a permit to sell things, like a yard sale, moving sale, etc.? That’s right, I can’t just go ahead and put up a sign and start selling my things. Now that means once I get said permit, I can just start selling things whenever I want, right. Wrong, you get that permit and you only are allowed to do a sale for 5 days, in a 6 month period. Yes, you get your permit, they give you a sign, if you want more than one sign, then you need to pay for the other sign, which can’t be put up by the street sign. If you do, the city can come and take it down. I know a lot of you are thinking, who cares. Does anyone really do a yard sale longer than a few days. No, they don’t, but why do I need to be restricted?

Now don’t get me wrong, I understand. Southfield is one of those cities, that when you go to the City Hall building, they have stuff up that talk about how awesome the city is. I mean 100 of the Fortune 500 companies do business there. I mean, that has to count for something.

What if you I didn’t want to sell the house, but rather I want to rent it out. I’m assuming, you can just rent it out without any issue. That would be another no go my friend. Yup, you need a permit for that. I won’t go into cost, but let’s just say, I understand how a city keeps themselves funded. Not to mention you need to get other inspections and so on. Which again I get, that’s how you don’t have horrible landlords and make sure the property is safe and ready to go. I just don’t know.

What to do with so much

My grandparents had a lot of stuff. I mean a lot of stuff. Clothes, books, VHS tapes, cassettes, oddly that many CD’s, that mess is mine in the house. Not that many, I took the majority with me, when I moved out in 2007. Though even without all of that, so much stuff.

I don’t know why I start with what I started with, but I started with the cabinets. I figured clean out the cabinets of all of the random lotions, cosmetics, keep a few cleaning supplies, etc., that should work out well. Let me tell you, that was an amazing journey. So many lotions, so many. Medicines, random cleaning things. The amount of stuff, would just make you glaze over so many times.

I thought when I started cleaning things out in February when it came to the food was amazing, 7 or 8 different boxes of pancake mix, plus so many expired things. That was nothing in comparison. To be fair, my grandmother had skin problems. She struggled for years, when it came to finding good lotions, moisturizers and all, but I just know the move was, she tried it a few times. It didn’t work out, so she just put it in the cabinet, where it stayed for who knows how many years.

Did you know that lotions, or certain moisturizer will actually separate and when you use them, they are just watery crap? OK, that might just be and my lack of knowing how the world works. My point is, there was so much in the one bathroom and our hallway closet. You would’ve thought a lot of people lived there. Not just one lovely lady.

So much more

If you missed the Part I at the beginning, then yes, this was just part 1. I am still cleaning out things. Remember almost 30 years, OK 27, but who’s really counting after 25? Why am I writing about this? Simple, we have too much stuff in our lives. If the fact that over I don’t know how many of these I get done, make someone realize they need to start getting rid of things. I might have done something good.

I will get back to my mission of writing about travel, but to be honest this is about travel in a way. It is about traveling through someone who you loved and knew for years. My grandmother lived and is missed everyday, she just kept way too many things.

See you when I get the next lovely tale of what I am going through in terms of cleaning things out in the house.