The basement is a part basement for storage only, there's not enough head space for it to be used for anything else. It's always been a bit of a disaster down there. Frankly, I can't even remember what it looked like when we moved in. Yikes.
It's gotten to the point where when I need to put something down there, I open the basement door, quickly look for a place on the stairs to put the item, then close the door in a hurry. Double yikes.
The other day in Decluttering: The 'Just Do It' Principle, I told you I had decided to tackle the basement once and for all and to show you as I do it. That was and still is a scary prospect, but it'll help keep me motivated and maybe motivate you too! If I'm completely honest the basement feels unconquerable to me. I'm hoping to prove myself wrong.
I'm aiming to spend at least 15 minutes every day for the rest of the month decluttering the basement. That adds up to over six and a half hours. I think that I can get a lot done in six and a half hours. Obviously I may not get to it every day, but when you really think about it, 15 minutes isn't that hard to find. With that said, consider today day one! Are you ready? Get on your shoes, here goes.
Day 1 - Start at the top and work your way down
I decided to work my way from top to bottom. I do the same thing with my daily tidying routine, I work from the front of my house to the back (which may explain why it's a bit of a disaster the further you go in to the house!) The logic in this is that you see an immediate result, and in this case the stairs are clear which makes it a whole lot safer.
Unlike my sorting the other day, today I did my best to put everything in its 'home'. The quote 'A place for everything, everything in its place' is one that repeats in my head a lot, I'm fairly sure that my mother planted that one there. It can however be very difficult to find homes for everything.
Just for the heck of it, here's the rundown of everything I had stashed on the stairs, and where it all went to.
- Curtains were put away in the linen closet, which is, before you ask, what is behind those small brown doors in the wall on the landing.
- Mouse trap went to Matt's tool box, seemed the most logical place.
- Broken kids stools - also stashed by the tool boxes, they break about once a week at this point, not sure if he's going to want to keep fixing them!
- Empty plate box - I put it on top of the cupboard the plates are in.
- Plant stand, will be put in to storage in the garden shed.
- Paint cans, moved down into basement with all the other painting supplies
- Bags of outgrown kids clothes, moved down into the basement with the other clothes storage
- Bags of items for selling on kijiji, moved down into the basement and placed roughly in the area I intend on turning into the kijiji waiting room
- Bag of misc. bathroom stuff, moved upstairs for me to sort through while watching tv
- Bed posts for kijiji & giant black door, both remained on the landing because they are awkward for me to move and will be leaving the house soon one way or the other. Anyone need a giant black door or a bed with bed posts? Anyone?
These shelves were left behind by the previous owners. What did they use them for? Their collection of beer cans! As you can see the shelves are bowing, and if we were to properly utilise them they would need to be replaced by something sturdier. It's a great use of space but I don't know what we could keep there. I've heard that basements are the worst place to store books because of the humidity, otherwise I would use it for that. Any ideas?
Over the past six years the shelves have served as a catch-all. It would go something like this. Get to the foot of the stairs. Look into the abyss of the basement. Dump item on shelves and run away.
I decided to leave the floor to my next day of decluttering, partly because there was a spider on the wall that disappeared while I wasn't looking. Ok, mostly because of the spider! The shelves were covered in a bizarre mish-mash of containers of nails and screws, misc. tool stuff and actually, in general, a lot of misc. stuff such as a cookie tin, broken clock, gift bags, a bag of cards, and happily, a little box labled 'crib screws' which contains the screwdriver whatchamacallit that I need to tighten the screws of our highchair. I had no idea where that had gotten to.
All the tool stuff went in to a plastic bag for Matt to sort through. If it's his, it's not mine to make the decision about. The gift bags were put with the other gift bags somewhere else in the basement. I bought the screwdriver thingy upstairs and put it on the highchair so that can get taken care of right away. I think I will then tape it securely to the bottom of the highchair seat so it will be right there if we ever need it. Remember, 'A place for everything, everything in its place.'
Throughout this process I also had to venture in to other parts of the basement. The few shots below show a few of the other things I had to do in order to get the stairs cleared.
1. Make a path - By clearing off the stairs I made it easier and safer for me to go up and down the stairs as I remove things from the basement. By clearing a path through the unsorted stuff in the basement, I opened up a path to areas past the mess, allowing me to put items in their HOMES. For example, I have shelving with rubbermaids for clothes storage, and shelving with p
aint supplies so I was able to put those items from the stairs away. It might seem like a scary scene from hoarders, but if I didn't do it this way I would be forever moving items from one pile to the next, never to their final home.2. Put like with like. I'm not sorting through the girls clothes right now and putting them in the appropriately marked container for the age-group. I put the plastic bags by the containers, and later I will do a further DEEP sort.
3. Not yours? Don't toss. Sometimes it seems like it would be so simple to toss away the sports memorabilia your partner never looks at, or the tools they never uses. The reality is, it isn't yours! Imagine if the situation was reversed and something you love but haven't used in awhile was taken away without your consent. Not a good feeling, hey?
4. Leave their sorting to them. Along with the last point, said partner may not like the way you sort things. If they do and you want to sort their stuff, then by all means go ahead. If they don't like it just save yourself the argument. Put it someplace for them to go through, then hassle them (ask nicely!) until they do.
Ok! So day one and I got the stairs cleared off, and the shelving at the bottom of the stairs cleared too. Downside is that now that special area back by my bedroom door has yet more junk by it again, but I'll be talking with Matt about his tools and getting him to sort through them ASAP.
Just so you know what I'm getting myself in to, check out these pictures of the abyss, also know as... my basement.
Woah.
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