A Skip Story
Many moons ago, when I finished studying Fine Art in Sligo IT, I decided to move back to Galway and live with my parents again…
There was one problem! I left home with one suitcase and came back with a van load of personal belongings which included a bicycle, guitars, a mattress, paintings and countless other items which were probably ready to be placed in a skip. I didn’t want to let go! As there was no space in the house, I decided to store my belongings in my parent’s sizeable shed at the back of the garden. I thought since nobody really uses the shed, it would be prefect to store my baggage! I opened the door to be greeted by a full shed of belongings which had been gathering dust for the best part of 20 years, except my father’s lawnmower which was used twice monthly to trim the garden. There was no space. Not an inch!
Looking for a solution, I decided to hire a skip and give my parents the gift of a clean and tidy shed, albeit one that would double up as storage unit for my belongings for a short time. When I contacted the waste management company, The City Bin Co., to hire a skip I wasn’t sure which size skip would be best for the job, but their customer centre was really informative and explained all the different skip sizes. After all, the shed was full to the brim. You have small skips, medium skips and large skips. Really, there are skips of all sizes for different uses. I decided to hire a medium size skip and if I needed to hire a second skip I could do that.
The skip itself arrived on a sunny Saturday morning and I opened the shed door and started the clear-out. There was a lot of broken furniture, old toys, empty containers, unused bikes, pieces of wood and a small sofa. It took me a good half day to fill the skip and clean out the shed. I even gave it a lick of paint. There were definitely a few upsides to hiring a skip and doing a clean-out that I didn’t expect.
- My mother always said that a tidy home is a tidy mind, and this is so true when it comes to clutter and junk. After I cleaned out the shed, you could actually park a car in it. There was so much room.
- They say exercise the body and the mind will follow. My arms were sore after all the lifting and throwing. It was a good workout and I slept like a baby that night.
- Letting go of unwanted items creates space for new hobbies. In my father’s case, his shed is used more often now as it’s where he stores his gardening tools and keeps his top-soil and pots.
It was a great idea to hire a skip and clean out the shed and to do something useful that would benefit others. However, I do remember, a year after I had hired the skip and cleared out the shed, my father asking me if I had seen the 50-year-old ‘high nelly’ bicycle he used to have.! It was my Homer Simpson moment! “D’oh!” Yes! It went into the skip.
