The basement, the ugly, ugly basement. Filled with crap, scary crap that no one wants to deal with. I keep imagining a clean room, a room with a corn stove and a cozy couch. Another room, a girls bedroom with an aquarium. I place to use the projector, a place to scrapbook…... I know it is possible! All things are possible! What is the problem? Laziness? Procrastination? Time? Lack of resources? A little of everything? Augh! We have been in this house for 10 YEARS (in December)! Why do we still have un-packed boxes from the move? It hangs over me like a dark cloud.
We worked on the garage yesterday and that gives me hope. I garage can be a place to park the car again! It can be a clean place with organized hooks for things! It can be a temporary place to move the things out of the basement that we are ridding our selves of. (Until NuWay comes to get them)I am going to go through 4 boxes this weekend… that is my goal. I am going to take them onto the sunny deck and THROW MOST OF THAT CRAP AWAY. Or recycle it responsibly. :-)
dottiemama has written 5 entries about this goal
Despite all my best laid plans, I’ve done basically nothing with the basement this summer. I did have my intended garage sale in June, but everything that didn’t sell went back into the basement to another sale I intended to have later in the year but never did. Hubby and I worked all day one Saturday and got rid of a bunch of stuff, but it still doesn’t look like much got done at all. I’m holding to the fact that I need LIGHT down there. I’m going to (1) replace the burned out bulbs and then I’m going to (2) sort out the kid’s winter clothes for the consignment store. Whatever they don’t take I will donate. Winter stuff never sells well at a summer yard sale anyway. Next, I will (3) sort out the summer clothes into totes for the next yard sale, but I will (4) donate all household articles, including the car seat. Lastly, I need to (5) throw out junk like the box of clothes that got wet when the wash tub over-flowed, and (6) use the shop vac.
My goal is to have the immediate area around the base of the stairs completely clear, have totes clearly marked and ready to go for the next yard sale, and have extra space to store a couple of things from upstairs for the holidays.
After the holidays, I plan to move one of the desks upstairs to use.
Today it was supposed to rain, but it didn’t; so I worked on the basement some.
Cleaned the cardboard boxes out of the garage and the leaves out of the driveway.
Used the shop-vac on the laundry area and cleaned the tops of the washer and dryer.
Emptied cat boxes… ugh!
Feels like I got something accomplished, but how does it get that bad, really?
This goal really is very overwhelming. Every time I make some progress on it, a few weeks go by until I can work on it again… and during those few weeks the progress I made slides back to the way it was before. I really am going to need to break in down into steps and then work to maintain those steps.
I have made progress in the area of getting rid of things. A lot has been donated to the gospel mission. However, clutter upstairs finds itself moved downstairs, and any space that has been cleared gets used.
While downstairs today I thought about how much I’d like to brighten up the laundry area. I think I will start there. I can clean up the area and organize it, and then I can do a few things to brighten it up.
So that will be my mini goal; the laundry area. I’m not sure when I will be able to start, though. It seems like a good project for spring, but I don’t want to just put it off until spring either.
Maybe I need to break my first step into smaller steps?
Step One: Laundry Area
a) get shop vac to clean up
b) wash all surface areas
c) move out extra coats and clothes
d) throw out old curtain and paint
e) put up new curtain and hang spider plant
f) move out desk and boxes to make room for ironing board
g) have water softener removed
h) buy screen to hide furnace and water heater
Lastly, maintain all forms of cleaning throughout and after project.
It is soooo overwhelming, but I keep imagining it cleaned and finished and all the wonderful ways I can use the extra space. That is encouraging me.
My mom is coming this weekend and we are going to begin tackling all the boxes. I have SO much stuff… it is really pathetic. My goal is to make three trips to the Gospel Mission with trunk-fulls of donations.
Yeah!
