Basement Decluttering: Where to start

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.

1. 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.
2. Mouse trap went to Matt's tool box, seemed the most logical place.
3. 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!
4. Empty plate box - I put it on top of the cupboard the plates are in.
5. Plant stand, will be put in to storage in the garden shed.
6. Paint cans, moved down into basement with all the other painting supplies
7. Bags of outgrown kids clothes, moved down into the basement with the other clothes storage
8. 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
9. Bag of misc. bathroom stuff, moved upstairs for me to sort through while watching tv
10. 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.

Calling all guest bloggers

I want to start featuring a variety of guest bloggers, at the rate of maybe one guest post a week. I'd even be happy to put together a post written by one of my many readers who are not bloggers (you know who you are). You could just e-mail it to me with any applicable photos and I could put it together and post it here.

I think that everyone has something worth saying. Do you have something you want to say?

If you've been thinking about blogging, this could be a good way to dip your toes in the pool. Have a good think about it and send me an e-mail.

Oh, and if you already have a blog and like what you've seen here, I'd love to be a guest blogger for you!  E-mail me!

My fabulous find on garbage day

Once a year a church in our neighbourhood runs a community garbage pick up where they will take trash from your yard, old mattresses from your basement, etc. It comes in quite handy. Last year they were a huge help to us and they even did yard work! This year they seemed to be concentrating just on taking away the garbage but that was a big help too. They took away the giant pile of wood we had from the demolition of our old porch and a few other odds and ends. I'm always really grateful for anyone who is willing to help out like that, it makes a big difference.

The reason I'm talking about all this is that my neighbour put some things out to be taken away, and I scored something that I think is pretty fabulous - for FREE!

Isn't it lovely? It's quite large and weighs a ton. I think it would make a beautiful planter on the porch in flowering seasons.

Image source: All About Planters

Keeping it inside I could use it to hold some decorative branches or an eclectic collection of umbrellas.

Image source: House to Home

No, I don't currently nor do I anticipate ever collecting umbrellas, but it's just about the right depth to contain some!

I haven't decided what I am going to use it for, but its appearance appeals to me so much I will be keeping it. Any suggestions?

Australia and Canada: Through new eyes

Image source: Lane & Anne

Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up for us the week after next. I am amused to remember the first time I ate turkey. I was still living at home so I was 18 or younger. We had big turkey drumsticks and I found the flavour to be so powerful and overwhelming. I was not a fan at all. Now that I've been living in Canada for over 6 years turkey has become one of my favorite things (at least when accompanied by cranberry sauce!). I had cravings for turkey throughout both of the girls pregnancies and was very happy when Thanksgiving came around.

That's right everybody. Believe it or not, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia! People are always astonished when I reveal that. In addition to that Halloween had no presence while I was growing up, although I have heard in recent years that Australia is now becoming more Americanised so I think that it may end up being more prolific there in years to come.

I enjoy Thanksgiving. I think Canada has it right though, having it the second week in October rather than the last week of November as it is in America. That falls way too close to the holiday season. Any occasion that gets all your family together is lovely, especially so with lots of good food! Although I do not now and never will understand the appeal of pickles and onions. Yuck! I'll stick with my egg and beetroot on hamburgers, thank you very much. ;)

I've been thinking about all of these things as my Dad and Step-Mum are going to be visiting with us from Australia in several weeks. We haven't seen them in person since we left Australia in March of 2004. They've never met my girls.

Thinking about what they will experience brings to mind my initial impressions of Winnipeg. My home town of Newcastle has about a third of the population of Winnipeg and despite both cities being primarily English speaking, I experienced a bit of culture shock. There are just so many differences between our two countries. The first and most obvious would be the extreme temperature difference of a Canadian winter versus an Australian winter. The first time I saw snow was as my plane descended in Winnipeg. Walking out of the airport in to the -18 celcius temperature was very shocking. We consider it cold back home if it's 10-15 degrees ABOVE zero.

The next most obvious difference was the bombardment of roadside advertising. Billboards at all different heights and sizes, flashing lights and writing. The numerous lanes of traffic, it felt like there were 8 lanes in either direction though really there are only two-three in most places. These things I now consider ordinary but I sure was wide-eyed taking it all in that first night.

When I flew back to Australia a few weeks later I experienced reverse-culture shock! I think once you've seen the way things can be different in other places, you look at your own world through new eyes. That's exactly what it was like for me. In Australia we drive on the opposite side of the road, and there are trees and greenery every where. Winnipeg often feels like a concrete jungle to me. You might argue that there are trees, but it's just not like it is back home. Here in Winnipeg the houses are so close to each other, and there are no beautiful hills or mountains to see right outside my front window.

One thing is for sure, here on the prairies the sky goes on forever.

Decluttering: The Just Do It Principle

I have shared with you my favorite place in the house, our master bedroom, many times.

It's my little sanctuary, the one place I try my darndest to keep tidy and retreat worthy.

What you haven't seen is what is right outside the bedroom door. It is reminiscent of that scene in the movie Labyrinth where Sarah opens a door from her bedroom only to realise she is still in the Labyrinth as all the memorabilia and JUNK of her life comes tumbling through the door. Metaphor anyone?

This is what lurks outside of my retreat.

I have LOADS of excuses as for why this little area of the house is such a mess. For example, I'm a mother, my time is limited. I have small children so I toss things over the baby gate and in to this area to keep them out of reach of the kids. Most of these things need to go down to the basement for storage. My basement is a larger version of this little area of the house, so sometimes getting things down there can be difficult. An item needs to be disposed of. An item needs to be returned to its owner. An item needs to be fixed. An item is in stand-by waiting to be sold on kijiji. An item doesn't have a home.

Yes, I am full of excuses!

Now here is what I think. I know that if I was to do this the 'right' way, I would touch every item once, make a firm decision about it and it would be dealt with once and for all. But, I'd rather deal with this little area in the quickest way possible because I want results and I want them now. So I am going to cheat and leave the hard stuff for later by putting everything out of sight (and somewhat out of mind) in the scary basement!!! This will have an immediate positive effect on both the look and feel of my house, and thus my contentment level in it. In this case I think that the 'just do it' principle applies. I'll worry about the big decisions later.

Remind me of this when I complain about the difficulty of sorting through everything in the basement.

Now that I've taken 'Just Do It' to heart, check out the results!

My work is done. Everything that can be moved has been moved down to the basement. I vacuumed the floor thoroughly and febreezed the carpet. What remains is Matt's domain - the toolbox.

I'd like to see it closed up and tidy with no excess tools sitting on top for the kids to get in to. My previous attempt to do that was met with Matt's annoyance that I had put things in the wrong drawers, so I won't be attempting that again! That accompanied with something else that I did in one of my decluttering episodes has made me more cautious. If it's not yours, don't throw it away. However, feel free to complain about it until the other person does deal with it!

It only took me about 30 minutes (including snapping all the pictures), and the result is that there is no longer a labyrinth of stuff falling in to my bedroom when I open the door, there's nothing there for me to trip over and fall on. I won't have tantrums of sheer frustration over not being able to open the washing machine door all the way, and hey, the carpet is clean. That's always a plus!

These little things add up to making a big difference. I have also decided to share with you my adventures in to the abyss - the basement. I will try tackle it for fifteen minutes at a time and with the strict rules in mind that I disregarded today. Or I'll make it up as I go, whatever works! Hopefully you will be inspired to tackle your personal labyrinth or abyss.