clean out my basement

Didn’t quite get through all the shelves, but made good progress. Hey, a girl’s got to watch a little football…

My husband and I worked on getting the big items out last Sunday. It’s really cool to be able to see the floor and go down to the dryer without negotiating an obstacle course. I’m going to work on sorting through things on the shelves tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll be able to check this off the list by tomorrow night.

Okay so technically it is my parents basement, but since I live here and hope that one day this house will be mine I call it mine to make myself motivated to clean it. My parents recently went on a three week vacation in which I stayed home and clean the living space of the house. It felt so wonderful that now I am motivated to move to the lower levels. I have decided on the basement because my father’s wood working tools are down there and there is much to be fixed in the rest of the house. To give an idea of the basement our friends call it The Dungeon. It is an old stone basement that has not been cleaned in probably 15 years. My friend and I have made it about 75% of the way through the back room and if the weather gets nice again we may be able to finish it in 3 to 4 days. Due to the mold and poor air circulation we can only work for around 4 hours at a time. If we go longer we start to have trouble breathing and start sneezing like crazy. Please do not be concerned we do use face masks, but even those don’t keep everything out.

I don’t even know where to start.

Finally got the basement cleaned out, $500 later, it’s actually possible to walk through to the garden.

Lots left to do, electrical work next

Well… last week my pipes froze in the basement and water went everywhere! So now cleaning out my basement is going to be fairly easy as almost everything is soaked and ruined and will have to go in the rubbish bin. Darn winter.

We’ve already used three 30 foot dumpsters at various points in the past two years to haul out debris from the previous owners and a bathroom renovation.

Since the dumpster industry is entirely, shall we say, “yakuza” in Brookyn, I decided I would never pay for another dumpster in cash, again.

Last night, the neighbors across the street moved out, and they only filled half of the dumpster.

I quickly started loading in wood, cement, tile, grout, black bags of electrical scraps, etc. We can now see the floor in the front room in the basement.

My basement is very scary, there is just crap piled every where. We really need the storage space. I think I am going to take the month of July to work on the basement. I am taking a week vacation at the end of the month that can be used for a final push but if I work a little bit every weekend and a few evenings during the week, by August I could have a nicely organized basement for storage and storm shelter.

after selling an 8-foot couch and four dining chairs on Craig’s List, I went to work on the Salvation Army pile, taking an inventory, pulling out some stuff to consign, and repacking it very neatly. It’s actually looking halfway decent. And how much do I love Craig’s List? People come and just take stuff away!