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Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,690 posts, read 57,994,855 times
Reputation: 46166
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vision67
Only in America do people park their $30K cars outside because their garages are full of worthless junk.
yup... I prefer to let my $35 car sit outside, and let my $30,000 bulldozer enjoy the garage.
Cars are 'dispensable'. IMHO. I have 34 cars, quite a few of them have to live outside. All my motorcycles enjoy living inside. Only a couple of my trucks will fit in the garage (it only has a 12' high door).
I was thinking the same thing as some of the other posters - a lot of people use their garages for storage. Maybe they don't clean their garages out because of the time and energy it would take to do that. But then they end up spending extra time and energy getting the snow and ice off of their cars every day.
Maybe some people put things in their garage until they feel like carrying them upstairs to the attic or downstairs to the basement (if they have an attic or basement), and they keep forgetting about it or putting it off.
To summarize a few of most apt reasons:
1) Garage is too small (some of the newer living rooms on wheels simply won't fit or garage was designed for a model T)
2) It became a permanent storage space for mostly worthless junk
3) It is a 'man cave' escape for the husband - his secluded spot. Or the wife banned his 'hobby' to the garage.
I've seen all of these and the frequency is in the order 2,3,1.
Obviously, a good number of these people are lazy, borderline hoarders. I speculate this is what happens when too many are inculcated by a mass media consumption based economic system that seems to confer validation / worth by the accumulation of 'stuff'.
And I searched but couldn't find a classic line from an early 1930s movie, where I believe Jean Harlow or Joan Blondell says, "You can park your car in my garage anytime".
Maybe some people put things in their garage until they feel like carrying them upstairs to the attic or downstairs to the basement (if they have an attic or basement), and they keep forgetting about it or putting it off.
For over 15 years???
I and most of my neighbors have been here since the houses were built--in 1996-97.
I can understand putting something off for a while.
I can understand "forgetting"...at least temporarily.
But, after experiencing snow and ice storms for most of the winters during those years............................................. ................
Wouldn't you think that some (or--hopefully--most) of those people would have finally figured out that they need to throw out most of the accumulated junk in their garages, so that they could shelter their cars from... winter's snow and ice...and summer's bird droppings and sun damage?
People are packrats. Doesn't matter what the climate is. I have a house on the Canadian prairies and one in Phoenix AZ. It can be 30 degrees below zero and they will have a 50 000 dollar BMW sitting in the driveway because their garage is filled with 500 dollars worth of crap. Phoenix in the summer, neighbors car sitting in 110 degree sun while his 500 dollars of garbage is shaded in the garage. I hate to see what the rest of people's houses are like if their garage is full of crap.
People are packrats. Doesn't matter what the climate is. I have a house on the Canadian prairies and one in Phoenix AZ. It can be 30 degrees below zero and they will have a 50 000 dollar BMW sitting in the driveway because their garage is filled with 500 dollars worth of crap. Phoenix in the summer, neighbors car sitting in 110 degree sun while his 500 dollars of garbage is shaded in the garage. I hate to see what the rest of people's houses are like if their garage is full of crap.
Most of the junk filling garages has no reason for being there other than pure laziness on the owners part. If they needed something in that mess they could never find it anyway. If you can't reach it, you don't need it.
I have an over sized four car garage and two vehicles, but even with four cars, there is plenty of extra room, but NO junk..!.. When my daughter visits there is plenty of room for her vehicle, too.
When I moved in I had custom cabinets built and I don't allow anything other than vehicles in the garage. What the neighbors do with their garage is their business, but it sure looks bad when their doors are open. Seeing the junk piles high in their garage give me an indication of what the inside of the house looks like. If you have no pride in your garage, perhaps it carries through into the house, at least it gives that impression.
Snow isn't an issue here in the desert. I sometimes leave both double doors open just so the neighbors driving by can see what a garage is supposed to look like. I'm sure seeing mine has never influenced them to go clean the junk out of theirs..
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