Tackling the Basement

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It must be the cooler air (or I’m coming down with something…), but I’ve been in a cleaning mood again.  This week I’ve been tackling the stuff that has accumulated in our basement, especially under the stairwell.  (Remember?  It was on my to-do list for spring cleaning once upon a time…)

I really wanted to do it right (part of why it’s been put off, I’m sure), so I pulled all the boxes out from under the stairs and went through ALL of them.  I made a pile of stuff to donate/try to sell and a pile for trash…

Usually this is when the kids come in to play and find all sorts of things I had hidden away, and suddenly my piles are all over the house.  This time around they found a few old McDonald’s toys, which (thankfully) kept them occupied for quite a bit while I worked.  And then they took a walk with Daddy, which gave me time to box up all that stuff that needs to just leave our house!

donating to Goodwill
Time to load up the back of my car before the kids start unpacking it all again!

Before putting anything back under the steps I used the shop-vac to suck up all the cobwebs and other goodies.  I also made sure every box was correctly labeled with what was inside.  Every. Single. Box.

I really should have taken a before photo so you could really appreciate what it looks like now.

See the box with the crate on top? It’s just empty storage boxes, and next to that are the kids’ winter coats that we’ll go through this fall.

There are 2 bags of stuff that will be leaving come fall, when I can try winter coats/boots on the kids, find out what no longer fits, and take stuff to sell at the consignment shop.  (Woo-hoo!)

Now to tackle all those boxes of books and other paraphernalia that are against the back well in the basement…  (It’s never done, is it?)

Oh, and did I mention all the cardboard boxes that I found along the way that need to find their way to the recycling center?

Part of me wants to let the kids get creative with all these and part of me says, “Get them out now while you’ve got a chance!”

 

What’s the one area in your house you put off cleaning?

Comments

  1. when that organizing mood strikes you must take the opportunity, you never know when it will come again, right? Looks liek a big job but will be awesome when you are done.

  2. Way to tackle that! We go through everything in our house and get rid of anything we don’t need at least once a year, sometimes twice. We just took a carload to Goodwill a couple of weeks ago. I’m not so sure it will happen as regularly once we have kiddos, though, haha!

  3. It is that time of year again, isn’t it? My son and I are tackling the basement right now. I don’t understand how it continually gets messy. Must be those gremlins.

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