I'm not sure any of you Wyoming people knew this, but Ben was here this past weekend. He came out for one of those Impact intense weekend workshop thingys. He stayed with me and Cam Friday and Saturday nights. While I was driving him down to the Impact thingy on Saturday morning he told me that he would really like to spend Sunday at his storage unit. He wanted to go through it all, get rid of a lot of it and really condense it down as much as he could. He has been paying $95 a month for that unit! $95 a month to store junk mail, gross pillows, half drank Mountain Dews and ketchup packets. He said Dan had offered to help and could meet him there around 3, and he asked if I could help too. I was willing to, but I knew it was going to take more than just the three of us.
So I called in a huge favor to Catherine and Emily. They both not only said yes right away to helping, but they also said they were willing to help store some of his stuff. When Catherine showed up, she had Travis with her! I totally wasn't expecting that and I am so grateful he was there. He was a huge help!
It snowed on us the entire day. It went from rainy snow to pretty much a blizzard. We've had like a week of cold, but clear days, and the day we do the storage unit, it's a freakin' blizzard!
You guys would be amazed at the amount of crap Ben got rid of. I think Travis took about 10 trunkloads of garbage to the storage unit dumpster. Mostly old magazines and junk mail. Some of the junk mail dated back to the 90's! I took 2 huge truck loads of stuff to Savers. Luckily there is a Savers just a mile or so away from the storage unit. I have to hand it to Ben. He wasn't as bad as I thought he would be, but I think we all helped him a lot with his decision or lack of decision making.
Despite the miserable conditions, we kept our spirits up and had a lot of good laughs. Some of the highlights include:
--When Emily found a fast food salsa packet. She had predicted the day before that there would be ketchup packets in there, but salsa works. A while later, I found an empty salsa packet.
--When Cat found the box of empty boxes. Yes, he had a big box full of smaller empty boxes.
--When Cat grabbed a laundry basket full of clothes and towels and picked up an item and realized it was a pair of Ben's underware. She kind of screamed and threw it down. I could not stop laughing.
There were some other funny things that happened. I just can't remember them at the moment. Dan ended up being a huge help too. He was great at convincing Ben he didn't need to keep things like the little plastic drawer thing that was just full of old business cards and pens and pencils and other really random stuff.
And thanks to Travis for letting us throw away all the cardboard boxes at your work dumpster, since we had completely filled the storage unit dumpster. And thanks to Cam for having a nice hot dinner and a roaring fire in the fireplace when I got home. I was completely soaked to the bone. And thanks again Cat and Em for helping, I hate to think how that would have gone if you guys weren't there.
Love you!! Kisses!!!
17 comments:
You guys are so awesome to do that for Ben. Was there anything left to store? Was he able to close out the storage unit and save 95$ every month? You guys are the best. Glad you're my sisters!
NO WAY!! I just noticed that my word verification is "sister"! Cool huh?
There is quite a bit to store. He moved to MN with the bare minimum. But he has a lot of mission, navy and childhood stuff and perfectly good clothing we're keeping for him. It's really a surprising amount we were able to condense down to.
I am not supprised at all with the stuff you found. Thank you all for helping him. Mom and I know just what it is like to go through his stuff and try to throw away all the paper he saved. We have a few boxes of his here. So is he able to give up the storage space with Cat storing some stuff? You guys are great my helping him. Thanks!
That is way cool your verification word was sister! What a coinkidink! Yes, there is still quite a bit to store, I would say 20 to 30 boxes of stuff. But thanks to Cat and Em being willing to store his stuff he did shut down the storage unit, so he doesn't have to pay that every month.
I'm trying to figure out where in my house I can store some of it. Cam and I barely have room for our stuff. If I can clear a place, I'll take some of it off your hands Cat. You shouldn't have to store that much stuff.
Don't worry about it Sue, it doesn't take up that much room in our garage. There's really no sense in moving it again.
Besides, he's lived with you and Cam, Em and Rob. I am able to do at least this much.
Hey that's true! I stored Ben for like a year and a half!
I stored Ben and 40 boxes of Cheez-its for 5 months in a 2 bedroom condo.
Truly, that day was just about the most miserable I've ever been! My feet were like wet soggy bricks I was hauling around instead of feet. It was not snowing at my house, I didn't think it would be as bad as it was. When I drove up and saw Ben staring at fifty open boxes, all of them being snowed on, I could have cried. Even through all the misery, we did have some good laughs. I missed the underware, did that happen after I left? How long were you there after we left? I felt bad leaving, but I think I was about to die and Scout had run out of humor too. You guys are awesome.
Ah yes, the empty boxes of cheez-its. I about cried too when I saw all the open boxes out in the snow. One thing I didn't mention in the post is that I dropped Ben off at the unit at about 11:30 so he could get a head start. He got more accomplished in that time before we all got there than I expected him too.
I think we were there until just before 6. I don't blame you at all for leaving. My feet were freezing and I had on boots! You showed up in ballet slippers! Cat and I pretty much got to the point that we were just throwing stuff away not caring if Ben wanted to keep it or not. We knew what important things looked like, like navy and childhood stuff. Everything else, we trashed while he rifled through a box. We filled the back of Dan's car with the soggy broken down boxes and took them to Solstice and dumped them, then we all went to Cat's and unloaded my truck into their garage. I got home a little after 7. I seriously can't think of the last time I was that cold.
I forgot to mention how proud I was in Ben also. I went home and told Rob that I think he threw away more today, then he ever has in his life. I was impressed.
Towards the end Ben seemed kind of bummed that so much was being thrown out. I told him not to worry. He will accumulate the same amount of crap in the next few months. He laughed and agreed.
I think you were there when the underware thing happened. I think you saw me laughing and asked what was so funny and I told you I would tell you later because Ben was near by. It was hilarious!
This is the best stuff I have read in a long time. I'm so proud to be in this family. That sounds lame but it's true. I love you guys. And I love Ben. If I would have known about him coming down I would have drove down there for sure. I wanted to call him on Christmas day but I didn't have the guts... STUPID.
He really should be a part of this blog too. That would enrich his life some I think.
That was a really great thing to do, you are all awesome! I just want to know why everyone is spelling it underware???
Matt and I totally would have skipped life and come down if we'd known Ben was going to be there. I've never met Ben.
Sue, that's funny that he was sad about throwing away that much stuff, but he knows that he'll get more "stuff".
Em, did he seriously have 40 boxes of Cheez-its?!
Yes, B, he accumulates boxes of things like Cheez-its. He loves his snacks like that, but can't part with the boxes.
That would have been cool to see you guys too. It didn't even cross my mind to tell you guys he was coming.
He's kind of thinking of moving back to Utah in May.
B, what you need to understand about Ben is that he really never throws anything away. When we say that, you might think we are talking about mementos or magazines from Poland, etc. What we really mean is he doesn't understand the concept of trash cans. If he bought 40 boxes of Cheez-it snacks while living at our place, 40 boxes of Cheez-it snacks would be left in the room when he left. They were a great accompaniment to the 200 gas station drink cups in there too.
Ben.
Em is right. He doesn't understand the concept of throwing stuff away. Here is an example:
A couple of weeks after Ben moved in with me and Cam, newspapers in those orange bags started showing up in the driveway. After 3 or 4 had accumulated I asked Ben if he had subscribed to the newspaper. He told me he did, some guy had offered him the subscription at the grocery store and it seemed like a good price. I told him that was fine, but could he please take them down to the basement, so they just didn't pile up in the driveway.
Ben lived in our basement, and I wanted to give him as much privacy as I could. We had no need to go down there, so we just never went down there. About 4 months after the newspaper thing, I went down there for some reason. In the corner was a pile of orange bags of newspapers about the size of a couch. Not one of them had been open. There had to have been 150 to 200 newspapers in that pile.
There was so much more garbage that I had to call in my sisters once again, plus mom and dad happened to be coming into town, and we all hit the basement together.
Ben.
I don't mean to dis on the guy. I do love him to death. I really do. I wouldn't do as much as I do for him if I didn't. He has a great sense of humor and he is really quite interesting to talk to. He just has some weird social disorders. Don't we all.
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