The Cuartito

The Cuartito (Small Room) has always been my dad’s man cave for as long as I can remember. This is his work shed and his place of escape. I can remember growing up and when we had anything that broke or we no longer had use of rather than dispose of it, dad would put it in the cuartito. If we ran out of space in the house for things, they would end up in the cuartito never to be seen again. When I was little it seemed like it was huge space for as many things that ended up there. You would think it was a whole other house when in fact it’s only about 10 feet wide and 16 feet long. One thing about my dad is that even though there were a bunch of random items in that small space he had it organized and grouped according to size and categories. He would use clear jars of food that had screw on tops and would clean them and remove the wrapping and use them to store nuts, bolts, nails, etc. He repurposed a lot of things but other things he held onto for other reasons I never knew. The funny thing is that dad knew exactly what he had in the midst of that storage chaos. There was a method to the madness. If anyone needed any random tools, camping or fishing equipment, etc they knew to come to dad because he most likely had what they needed. I remember dad even still had his old Army cots and we would use those when we went camping.

Before I moved back home, the cuartito came in handy for me as a storage space for my own boxes that I had shipped prior to my arrival. After being here a little over two years, I’ve begun to see the cuartito in a whole other light. Little by little I’ve managed to convince my parents to get rid of things and I’ve had Goodwill come several times and pick up donation items. The city has specific dates throughout the year when they collect bulk items so that was another option I used. I had to learn to take it slow and not just start getting rid of stuff even though that’s what I wanted to do. I had to respect the fact that some of the items were of value to them and they had held onto them for sentimental reasons. They have definitely come a long way and let go of quite a few items.

My dad has is older and isn’t able to do as much work around the house and yard like he used to. With this being said, he doesn’t hang out as much in the cuartito anymore other than to organize the items that are still stored there and shred papers. It’s now become my place to escape, unwind, and workout out on the elliptical machine since that is also stored there. I will only go there when he’s not there because I don’t want to intrude on his cuartito time. Even though I often feel like I am intruding by just being inside it. When it’s my time, I find myself looking around and I’ll see little treasures that I had never seen before or knew that he had. It’s almost like a glimpse into my dad’s world. He has a bunch of random items hanging from pegs on the wall, in clear jars, boxes of books, cassette tapes and VCR’S, etc. I will sit there and try to figure out why he has held onto them and what purpose they serve. I also try to imagine a story behind each piece. Many times it makes no sense to me but I’m sure it makes sense to him. Therefore, what’s there will continue to be a part of the cuartito as long he wishes them to be.