A HUGE Attacking the Problem Areas: The Basement

I like to think the upper floors of our house are pretty organized.  That's where we spend most our time and where I spend most of my time/energy making pretty.  I've been a major purge kick for months now and every time I find more to get rid of or clean up a cupboard I feel pretty satisfied.  I've long considered myself an organized person (not in my younger days...I was a hoarder then) but our house has gotten infinitely more organized in the last 2 years.  That coincides with me quitting my job and being home most of the time.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Then there is our basement.  Yes, our basement is mess.  A few weeks ago I was down there for some reason in the middle of the day when I texted Matt that it was getting dangerously close to only have walkways between the piles of junk.  Well, what I would call junk.  Since I'm mostly in charge of what is stored in our main living areas, Matt largely controls the basement.  We have our laundry down there and our deep freeze.  We have a corner with our exercise bike, tv, and DVD stand.  Then there is the dark hole where Matt has a workbench and computer storage. 

Other than laundry, working out, or getting food, I don't spend much time down there.  Somehow though, Luke has decided that the basement is about the coolest place in our house (actually inside, he loves being outside the most).  He begs to go down there as soon as Matt walks in the door (he knows I'm a hopeless cause).  We've been talking for months that our basement needs some serious work.  Serious work.  Almost 2 years I worked on going through all my basement boxes and did get rid of a lot.  But that was 2 years ago (back when Luke napped 3 times a day....ahhhhh) and I need to do it again.  Not because I've added much but because I've gotten a lot better about purging.

The current pile of boxes and stuff I'm working through.

We're on about part 4 of this basement project.  The first was moving a bookshelf from our bedroom (that was replaced with one Matt built as part of my never ending bedroom update project) to better organize all my canning and freezing supplies.

So. Much. Better.  That blue tub to the right of the desk in the left picture (got that?) is our basement pantry storage I mentioned here.  You should be jealous of that kind of fancy pantry storage.

The second step was a huge shelf Matt built to better store and organize our paint and painting supplies (it is so incredibly wonderful to have a handy husband).  Matt knocked this baby out in less than a day when Luke and I were out of town.  I got home and told him I was so excited to organize it.  Then didn't touch it for a week.  #ontopofthings  It's still not fully done being filled.

Step three was Matt building (sensing a theme here....) a massive computer desk for his repair work (he's the go-to computer guy for both our families, comes in handy for me very often).  It is massive.  Luke often spent time with Daddy in the basement "helping" build it (he would tell me "Dad. Basement. Loud. Eyes." which means, "Dad is working in the basement and it's loud when he uses the sander and it gets in my eyes."). 

It's not "Diana organized" but it's much better than it was.  It's huge.  It might have to stay with our house when we move because it would need majorly disassembled to fit up the stairs.  


I usually don't like adding storage, preferring to get rid of stuff, but in this case, I think a large part of the mess came from things not having a place so they just got put wherever.  And I'm a big believer in "a place for everything and everything in it's place".  The other part of the mess is stuff that we need to get rid of and we are working on that too.
My massive, and ever growing, garage sale pile in the middle didn't help matters either.  It amazes me how many new things I can find to get rid of in 12 months, even though every time we've had a garage sale (just had our third!) I feel like I've gotten rid of everything and won't have anything left for next year.  Heh.  I think my pile for this year started about 2 days after the last sale.  So I've tried to be extra ruthless this year so maybe we can get a break from the basement pile.  I hope.

As for my boxes...

It's been awhile since they looked like that.  There are 12 boxes in that picture of my stuff.  That's too many.  I've started going through them.  Again.  For the third or fourth time since we moved in.  My goal is to get it them down to:

-1 box for childhood (birth - 8th grade)
-1 box for high school & college combined
-1 box of books I'm saving, mostly for a daughter (some of my childhood favorites)
-a few (WELL SORTED) boxes of my old toys.  There is currently one of Playmobil, one of Legos (which isn't even pictured above), and one of stuffed animals, Barbies, doll bed, and doll clothes.

(taking major inspiration from this I Heart Organizing post where they only have 1 box each!!)

Getting it down to those 6 would be a big improvement, especially since 4 would be primarily of things I'm saving for future/older children.

It's a constant work in progress and very slow moving with juggling outside projects, enjoying summer, caring for a toddler, Matt's multitude of woodworking projects, and my craft stuff.  Maybe by the time the weather turns cold (and it's too chilly down there to work comfortably) we'll be kinda done.  For now.

Anyone want to fess up on their home problem areas??  I know we aren't the only ones hiding things....