Organizing The Basement

[Disney Doll]

DH and I have spent the better part of every weekend this month organizing our basement.

The problem started when we bought the house. We purchased it from an estate, and the nieces of the owner(who were heirs to the estate)wanted to have someone clear out the basement before we moved in. Apparently the man who owned the house was quite a "do-it-yourselfer". Anyhow, when my DH heard that they were just going to have a junk man come and cart the stuff away, he told them to save their money, leave the stuff in the basement and we'd take care of it. His premise being that there were a lot of good tools and handyman stuff down there.

Well, that was 9 years ago!

Since then, we have just accumulated more stuff on top of the previous owner's stuff and it was all thrown all over the place. The basement was like a minefield!!! In the course of all these years, "other things" just got in the way...renovations, sick & dying parents etc, so the basement never got cleaned up.

Well, I decided this year that the stars were in the right place, Jupiter was aligned with Mars, and we were cleaning and organizing the basement. Of course, we are the kooky people who start this type of project before a major holiday...hey why not??? No one's too busy at this time of the year, right???

I must say though, I have been very impressed with our commitment to this cleaning and organizing project. Of course, DH also just got a new car, and the "staging area" for all the stuff is in the garage, which means new car is outside, so that might be the impetus for a portion of his enthusiasm to get it done, but who am I to argue????

We have been to Home Depot. We have lovely shelves. We have moved his workbench and associated paraphernalia to one side of the basement, where he is setting up his workshop with yet more shelves and little containers to hold nails, screws, etc. The wall that his workbench was on is now totally free and I have stacked the Rubbermaid storage boxes along there, so there will be no more crawling in and out of the crawl spaces in my attic, at my old age!!!!!!!!! It is actually beginning to look organized, and I can't believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[debster812]

So you'll be coming up here to Mass to help me organize the attic and crawlspace, right??? Now that you are so good at it.

 

[Disney Doll]

LOL debster!!!!!! It'll be a miracle if I survive this "reorganization".

 

[Dreamer04]

Disney Doll, I can't believe it! You are not alone. On 12/23 I began my own "Clean Sweep" of our basement! We threw away so much junk! On top of that everything was covered with soot from our oil burner. I an now seriously considering switching to gas heat! We now have lots of empty space that needs tons of major renovation. ! But I am very happy. We finished last night and it looks great!

Good luck!

 

[Disney Doll]

Well, we are still working on it, but it looks a darn far sight better than it did. It's a lot of work, and a very good lesson on NOT accumulating junk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[lisajl]

Add my crazy husband to your club. He reorganized our basement about 2 weeks before the holidays.

He said it was because we were giving the kids a PS2.
I must say he did a great job!
Glad I did not have to go in the trenches with him! LOL!

Lisajl

 

[amid chaos]

All I wanted for christmas is a dumpster!!! well, we are doing some construction and I have one coming in a few weeks...can't wait!

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

Originally posted by debster812
So you'll be coming up here to Mass to help me organize the attic and crawlspace, right??? Now that you are so good at it.

LOL I was just going to say that I'm just a short drive away in RI, and come on over!

 

[arminnie]

Oh I need to do this so BAD - for me it is my garage.

Two years ago I moved across country from California to Arkansas and moved in with my Dad. I had 30 years worth of my possessions that sort of got dumped in the garage and house by the movers.

By this time my mother had been deceased for three years - my father is a terrible pack rat and loves to go to garage sales. Also my aunt and uncle went into a retirement home and the remnants of their 50 years of married life were put in our garage waiting for them to have a garage sale.

My aunt is now deceased and my uncle is in a nursing home. I've given truck loads of stuff away but you can barely walk out there in the garage. For the longest time my dad had a fit if I gave anything away - even old mayonnaise jars but I have learned to do it when he is gone. If he misses something I just say "I don't know where it is." Which is true - I don't know who has it now.

It took a YEAR before the dining room (which is quite large) was not full of card tables loaded with "stuff" and the living room was cleaned out. Making a commitment to a party in which the Lt. Governor of the state (a Rockefeller no less) was supposed to be there helped get that part in order.

Unfortunately no notables are set to look at my garage. I use the excuse that it is either too hot or too cold to go out there.

Maybe this year I can get at least one of our three cars (my dad won't sell my mother's car either) into the garage.

Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[Disney Doll]

Well, I had a dumpster here in the spring when we did a big renovation, and some stuff "mysteriously" ended up in there then!!!!!

 

[mudnuri]

LOL at the dumpsters..I've got a funny story I'll try to keep quick.

DH and his family owned a waste management company for quite a few years, about 7 years ago, his brother had to drop off a can (we dont call them dumpsters...) across the street from our house for a "Rotary Clam Bake"..well, it was Wednesday, they didnt want it till Friday, so he dropped it in my driveway. DH came home and found the 8 yarder full..... he started poking and proding in it, (well, it WAS his dumpster!)...and pulled out some of HIS stuff I had thrown away...after serious discussion, he threw them back, however there was STRICT orders that nobody was to drop a can in my yard, and if I Called for a can to be delivered, nobody was to do it!...

We were the joke of the shop!

Brandy

 

[JESW]

Wow! Must be something in the DIS water...I am in the process of doing MAJOR cleaning throughout the house. Closets, drawers, kids rooms, our room, etc. I am even going through the kids markers (a box full) and throwing out the ones that no longer work - things that petty. I clean with a black trash bag so the kids can't see what I'm tossing. I have bags for the salvation army, bags for other people and just bags for trash. It's a never-ending battle.

Enjoy your organized basement! That is DH's territory and he is SUPPOSED to have it cleaned out so we can get it re-finished. Some day...

Jill

 

[msdznyduck]

Ours is the kids "playroom". Ha Ha...........the "kids" are now 13 and 15, and haven't been in there in years, and the "playroom" is a junkroom. I forget what color the carpet is......haven't seen it since forever. The stuff is just everywhere. I keep saying we need a dumpster, but DH says "we can just get rid of the stuff in the regular trash......little by little". Yeah, right, maybe in 10 years we will be able to use that room again. But probably not, since our trashcan is always full and there is hardly room for extras.

 

[Pat]

Wow. You guys are doing great. Anybody want to come to Minnesota to help me. I moved out of my old house a year ago. We filled two dumpsters with junk and many garbage cans full. I am a pack rat and DH was a major pack rat. The basement still has stuff in it and I am trying to get the kids to get their dad's stuff out of there.

I had a neighbor who had a husband who loved garage sales and was a pack rat. She said that every bag of garbage that went out of their house had something in it that he had brought home. Funny, he never seemed to miss anything.

 

[TIGGERSMOM]

OK must be a "Clean Sweep" kind of year.

We are doing the same thing but from above not below. We have no basement(live by the ocean water level, ya know) but our attic has been stuffed since we moved in 6 years ago.

So we are pulling down box after box and culling it out. I am living by the Clean Sweep rules - only 50% going back and if I haven't used it in 2 years, has no setimental value or is chipped, knicked - out it goes.

22 boxes done - I have no idea how many to go!

BTW -Big Brother/Big Sister loves all this kind of stuff and they pick up - just a thought.

 

[Disney Doll]

Well, my DH has more "pack rat" tendencies than I do. And I have resorted to throwing things out in dark garbage bags so he can't see what's in them!!!!

I am hoping that once it is nicely cleaned and organized, that he will want to keep it that way!!!!