Carport Clarity

How co-existing with foxes made me confront my clutter

May 22, 2023

We have a family of five foxes living under our back deck: a mama and her four babies. They’re absolutely adorable to watch (they act just like puppies!) but wow, are they mischievous!

I’m constantly finding all kinds of dog toys in our yard, and we don’t have a dog. Yes, they’re stealing from other people’s yards and bringing their treasures “home.”

(Note: Not all treasures are dog toys. Sometimes they’re pieces of trash. Sometimes they’re stuffed animals. And sometimes they’re dead squirrels.)

Anyway, the foxes love hanging out in our carport. One night a few weeks ago, my outdoor camera captured 73 clips triggered by their movement in the carport. That’s just ONE NIGHT. It turns out that mama fox likes climbing on top of my SUV where she can be a lookout while the kits wreak havoc in the carport.

The kits have done their best to chew open every bag of mulch, garden soil, and compost I own, making huge messes that are a pain to clean up (not to mention all the wasted gardening materials).

But the mess in the carport wasn’t entirely the foxes’ fault, although I do like to blame them for everything. I must admit that I’ve gotten lazy about where I put stuff in there, and I hadn’t organized the carport since early February. After three months, it was time to do it again.

So two weekends ago, I spent a couple of hours cleaning and organizing our carport.

It’s still not quite where I want it to be, but it’s definitely an improvement.

As I was moving things around, I realized that there’s a lot of stuff that we never even use in there.

Same thing in our house.

I organized my office in February and now it’s…not quite a disaster, per se, but it’s getting there. Our downstairs rec room area is stuffed with my son’s belongings. And talking about my son––his room really IS a disaster. Not that my room is much better.

The point is: I have too much stuff.

(It may be time to call in a body double again for some serious decluttering and organizing!)

So far, I have 54 items on my “To Sell” list, with the goal of getting them all onto FB Marketplace this week. Getting rid of those 54 things would go a long way toward clearing some much-needed space both indoors and out. Plus it’d give me a little extra cash…win-win!

Look around your home—is there anything you can get rid of? Anything sitting around because you once thought you’d use it, but never did? Anything that used to fit, but doesn’t anymore?

As Elsa would sing, “Let it GOOOOOOO!”

In the meantime, I’m off to list some of those 54 items on Facebook—and hopefully make me some money!