clean up the basement

Basement is a disorganized mess. I’m unmotivated because I don’t no where to start.

Having Brian and Sherrie here in very early April helped motivate me to clean and start weeding the basement “stuff.”

I did clean up my workbench a little bit, but Weebaby is making this dream a reality.

...has been reorganized! The rest is still in piles, but it’s going to go away when I have the garage sale. Now I can go into the basement, look at some well marked boxes, and find what I need. When the rest of the crap is gone, I will borrow Jonny’s vacume and do the last clean sweep. At the moment, it’s really nice to not have to manuvere around piles of junk.

started out with just a empty box foundation with stairs coming down the middle, and full of JUNK

now we have a big family room with an entertainment center corner, a bar (currently dry, but plans to make it a wet bar), beer tap behind the bar, poker table, blackjack table, craps table, “home office” corner, laundry room (soon to contain a 2nd bath), craft area for my wife, unfinished storage, and a furnace room.

lots of before and after basement photos here

now, we finally have a place to relax at night and we can entertain guests with ease.

The past few days I’ve made some nice headway here. I’m taking things one section at a time, first focusing on the front area. I’m consolidating, organizing, and pitching (though, admittedly, I’ve always had trouble pitching enough).

Oh, and I should mention that the vinyl unit mentioned in my previous entry has been built (it’s great). Unfortunately, I’ve got two metal shelving units still unbuilt.

I’ve decided to take the approach of cleaning the basement like we’re moving. Why? Because by the time I finally finish, we’ll probably be ready to move again. :)

well worth it it looks great now

took me 8 hours on a day off and 20 some trash bags but it is done

the good news: i cleaned it a week and a half ago, tossing out lots of junk and organizing like never before.

the bad news: our basement flooded during the rainstorms here in new england so we have to rip up the carpet, replace drywall, etc. etc. etc… none of it is covered by insurance. fun.

Real Simple has some good ideas on organizing your basement.

I’m going to pick up some metal racks this evening and start getting the basement in shape. I’m also going to vertical storage for my LPs (which are in the basement), which should help.