I have this sort of lean-to area in the back of my driveway. It's filled haphazardly with recyclables and wood and pieces of insulation and bins of camping gear and whatnot. It's a terrible mess. I am finally starting to pull out the recyclables and stack the lumber in a way that makes some sort of sense.

My plan is to keep chipping away in this area. I have to be careful, since this is where the black widows live. I have to try to remember to wear actual shoes, not sandals, and wear work gloves.

So here is my plan, not in any order:
-Pull out the steel recycling
-sort and set aside an area for bottle recycling
-Figure out how to put some kind of better floor down. maybe gravel or sand. Right now it's full of this terrible muddy dust. it needs a floor of some sort that is less nasty.
-make work a work space for sorting gear before and after trips, to place my gardening and construction tools around and potting stuff.
-Install some form of lighting in there. It's super dark since it's really just open in the front.
-an electrical outlet would be nice too.

I am kind of at a loss for how to organize and manage all these catagories in there.

Any ideas or comments would be very welcome.

Dear Jilly -

That's fantastic news, it is wonderful that you're making progress! I would start by removing and getting money for the items in there that are ready to go - that will be a wonderful first step!

True, and that is what I am doing. Thank you. I do want to write out a list though. Lists make me feel safer, as if i have a plan.

So in this spirit, do i take everything out (once the recyclng is gone) and put in a fresh floor of some kind (heck even straw), or put that off til later and get another category organized?

Yuck - it's a wet and chilly day here in the high desert. I think i will wait before bringing my steel in for a nice day, since the activity is outside and will take some time.

I think i will pull out the rest of my steel, my copper cabling and the aluminum cans today, and get them set to load up after I drop off this first load.

That sounds good, one step at a time!

I had all sorts of plans to take in my steel pile and such but this poison ivy has sidetracked me. I'll be healthy again soon.

I managed to clear out another corner of the lean to today. Yay!

That is awesome news! Congratulations!

We want to see photos!

Hmmm. One area i had cleaned out is now stacked with small pieces of lumber that Dan put there. Maybe I need to grab him a bin and have him put the scraps in that instead of in a pile. I can fix that right now!

No photos yet. It's still really bad in there.

OK, I just put dan's wood scraps in a little bin to the side, so it's no longer just heaped on the floor. He made a little face at that but i think understood what I am trying to do.

He should be applauding your organizing efforts, not hindering them! He needs to learn the carrot-and-stick stuff

Good for you for your efforts!

It's fine to have before photos, I do that sometimes. Remember when I posted the photo of my office that was completely jammed with stuff?