Of Treadmills and Garages

I joined a gym for a month a few months into starting running.  I'm in Seattle, and wanted a backup in case the weather was too warm.  (Rain I can deal with.)  I let the membership lapse after a month though - getting to the gym was just frustrating, it was humid & hot in there (no AC), and the TVs were always on the Food Network.  (CRUEL!)

Fast forward to April, when I jumped on my parent's treadmill while staying at their house for some family event.  It was great!  I was able to maintain a given pace, my knees were cushioned...  I asked if I could borrow it for a few months, they said sure - they never use it, then we both promptly forgot about such an arrangement.

The 90 degree heat wave here a few weeks ago spurred me onto Mission Treadmill this last weekend.  In lieu of weight training on Saturday, I spent FOUR HOURS going through everything in my garage, moving everything out of said garage, and then re-organizing everything to make room for our new WORKOUT ROOM!  Yes, folks, a place where I can Shred, Run, do pushups and situps without worrying if my stomping is bothering the neighbor.  JACKPOT.

The first contribution to the workout room came on Sunday - my parents arrived with the treadmill.  It's a hardcore one, with crazy gadgets and supports weights up to 250lbs.  I ran my long run on it last night, with the fan pointed right on me and This American Life blaring on the stereo.  AWESOME.

Eventually, we'll do the following:
- Get 'Gym' flooring from Home Depot/Costco. 
- Get a TV/Cable hookup so I can watch TV while running
- Get a DVD player so we can Shred/Yoga/P90X
- Get our boxes / gardening stuff condensed on a shelf unit so I have room for jumping around

I'm so excited. 

The other part of the garage cleanout was - well - cleaning out the garage.  We have a small home, and crap often gets tossed into the garage to 'deal with later'.  It felt SO GOOD to get rid of said crap, blocks of styrofoam, old bits from my college years - basically all of the stuff that we hang on to thinking we'll need it someday, even though we won't. 

We made one full truck load of donations to Goodwill (and FULL!) , and one FULL load to the dump.  Throwing my crap over the ledge at the dump felt great.  I was CHUCKING stuff over the ropes - goodBYE clutter that has been taking up my home for five years!

Are you a stasher?  Or a minimalist?  Do you ever get the urge to frantically clean out a closet?