{"id":600188252,"date":"2026-04-22T02:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2026\/04\/22\/getting-it-done"},"modified":"2026-04-22T02:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:00:14","slug":"getting-it-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2026\/04\/22\/getting-it-done","title":{"rendered":"Getting it done"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You can do anything you put your mind to &#8211; almost anything, practically speaking.<\/p>\n<p>But some tasks can be daunting&#8230; where do you start? I recently had to clean out a storage locker because the lease had expired. How did it get so cluttered, and so fast?<\/p>\n<p>Well, I figured it out when started pulling stuff out of the locker. Lots and lots and then a lot more empty boxes. After breaking down approximately 20 boxes and stuffing them into two big boxes, I made a trip to the 4R Recycling Depot on Pacific Avenue. Since I was going anyway, I thought might as well load up any other recycling in the building that I maintain and live in. I ended up making a few trips with a few carloads.<\/p>\n<figure class='wp-caption fl photo'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/04\/4136091_web1_Kretchmer-0422.jpg?w=1000' data-pswp-srcset='https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/04\/4136091_web1_Kretchmer-0422.jpg?w=320 320w, https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/04\/4136091_web1_Kretchmer-0422.jpg?w=600 600w, https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/04\/4136091_web1_Kretchmer-0422.jpg?w=1920 1920w' data-pswp-width='1999' data-pswp-height='2008'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img src=\"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/04\/4136091_web1_Kretchmer-0422.jpg?w=1000\" alt=\"Photo of Doug Kretchmer\n                                A photo of correspondent Doug Kretchmer&rsquo;s now-empty storage unit. The &lsquo;cymbal lamps&rsquo; are centre left.\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='dynamic-caption'><p>Photo of Doug Kretchmer<\/p>\n                                <p>A photo of correspondent Doug Kretchmer&rsquo;s now-empty storage unit. The &lsquo;cymbal lamps&rsquo; are centre left.<\/p><\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n<p>With phase one of the project complete, it was time to pull out boxes and categorize them. Thank goodness I&rsquo;m good at documentation, a trait I learned in recording engineering school).<\/p>\n<p>I separated them into four sections:<\/p>\n<p>1) Things to donate to a thrift shop (after re-evaluating why I kept the stuff for so long and after moving the box to my last three residences);<\/p>\n<p>2) Things to bring to my music booth at the Mulvey Market. Is it music related? Am I willing to part with it yet?<\/p>\n<p>3) Stuff I&rsquo;m going to hang onto. (Don&rsquo;t ask me why.) <\/p>\n<p>4) Scrap metal (to be taken to the scrap metal recycler).<\/p>\n<p>There was also a subsection of things I took photos of (like the pool table and dining table set) which a friend said he could help me sell online. I&rsquo;m not much of an online kind of guy but I&rsquo;ll give it a shot.<\/p>\n<p>The process took about four days and on the third and fourth days, I enlisted the help of a musician friend, who brought along his guitar the last day.<\/p>\n<p>I asked myself if this was a mistake, because we stopped a few times and jammed, with him on guitar vocals and me on &lsquo;cymbal lamps&rsquo; and old cookie tins and improvisational sounds and spoken word. Even though they took us away from our work, the &lsquo;musical breaks&rsquo; (documented with my camera) were relaxing and inspirational&#8230; they kind of took away from the drudgery of the work at hand. We had fun with it, and when we weren&rsquo;t making our own music there was always the trusty ghetto blaster tuned to CKUW 95.9FM for inspiration<\/p>\n<p>Anyhow, once everything was said and done, I closed the door on an empty storage unit, and a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment came over me.<\/p>\n<p>Now I&rsquo;m primed and ready for more spring cleaning in my living unit.<\/p><div class=\"collageplus\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can do anything you put your mind to &#8211; almost anything, practically speaking. But some tasks can be daunting&#8230; where do you start? I recently had to clean out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":600188253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,20],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-600188252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-correspondents","category-west"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"","story_tag":"","byline":"Doug Kretchmer","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2026\/04\/22\/getting-it-done","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Getting it done","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2026\/04\/22\/getting-it-done","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2026\/04\/22\/getting-it-done"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/04\/4136091_web1_Kretchmer-0422.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/04\/4136091_web1_Kretchmer-0422.jpg"},"articleSection":"Community Correspondents","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"laurieb"}],"creator":["laurieb"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-04-22T07:00:14Z","datePublished":"2026-04-22T07:00:14Z","dateModified":"2026-04-22T07:00:14Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Getting it done\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\\\/our-communities\\\/correspondents\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/22\\\/getting-it-done\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\\\/our-communities\\\/correspondents\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/22\\\/getting-it-done\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\\\/our-communities\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/5\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/4136091_web1_Kretchmer-0422.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\\\/our-communities\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/5\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/4136091_web1_Kretchmer-0422.jpg\"},\"articleSection\":\"Community Correspondents\",\"author\":[{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"laurieb\"}],\"creator\":[\"laurieb\"],\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"Our Communities\",\"logo\":\"\"},\"keywords\":[],\"dateCreated\":\"2026-04-22T07:00:14Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-22T07:00:14Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-22T07:00:14Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/winnipegfreepress.com\/p.js"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/04\/4136091_web1_Kretchmer-0422.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"deck":"","byline":"Doug Kretchmer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600188252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600188252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600188252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600188253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600188252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600188252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600188252"},{"taxonomy":"education-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/education-subject?post=600188252"},{"taxonomy":"media-literacy-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-literacy-topic?post=600188252"},{"taxonomy":"post_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_topic?post=600188252"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=600188252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}