The Basement: Sorting and Tossing

{On This Veteran’s Day, let us remember their service, past and present. Thank you to all of our Veterans. We appreciate your sacrifice.}

We are in the “getting worse before it gets better stage” of the basement clean-up and organizing project. This is also the stage in which I am having to make some hard decisions about the organizing systems to put in place based on how much money we have to spend on renovations for the rest of this year. Originally, I thought I could direct a larger amount of money towards the basement, but after reviewing our master project plan, I realized that the money would be better spent on M’s bedroom and our dining room. We have less flexible funds during this time of year.

This is a good time to mention that having a master plan for a whole home renovation/remodel is a really good idea. It helps keep the focus on the path to completion and prevents veering off course to chase the squirrels through the underbrush and into the trees. I tend to want to chase the squirrels.

I do not feel bad about reigning in the spending for this project. I enjoy being forced to use what I have on hand as much as possible. It fosters creativity. Once this first pass of cleaning and organization is complete, the basement will go back on the master list for additional improvements should they be necessary at a later time.

I have been pinning some great stuff on Pinterest on our new board called Basement Solutions. If you have anything fantastic and affordable pinned for your own project, please feel free to share it with me on Pinterest or in the comments here. I would love to have some fresh ideas to mull over.

Anyone who has spent any amount of time on Pinterest knows the unlimited budget-busting possibilities for storing all of these items. My main objective is to create a space that is conducive to putting things away once we are done with them. When I really focus on that need, I realize that it is not necessary to spend a lot of money creating organizing systems.

BHH does not have a real garage with proper protection from temperature extremes, so our basement serves as a place for traditional basement-type items as well as some items that some people might put in their garages.

Now that I have everything sorted, and the trash has been separated, I have narrowed our storage needs down to the following categories:

• Electrical supplies
• Paint and Painting supplies
• Hand Tools
• Power Tools
• Wallpaper supplies
• Hardware (nails, screws, etc…)
• Scrap wood and trim
• Misc workroom items (ear plugs, specialized tape, etc…)
• Camping and backpacking
• Holidays
• Storage containers and supplies
• Garage sale items for our sale next spring

The plan is to focus on clearly labeled areas for each category of items that need to be stored. I recognize that this is not a particularly novel idea, but why try to reinvent the wheel? If I plan well, and put a simple, intuitive organizational system in place, I am confident that I can change my bad habit of piling stuff and a tidy basement will be easy to maintain. I successfully curbed this behavior at our California house, and I believe I can do it again.

So far, there have been no real setbacks with this project, and no major areas of repair have been identified. If I was a superstitious person, I would be very worried that I just wrote that.

Let the organizing begin.

The Full Project:
Part I – The Basement
Part II – Sorting & Tossing
Part III – Troubles & Treasures
Part IV – Organized & Ready