Friday, March 4, 2011

Basment you are going DOWN!

 It is the 9th week of the year. That means if you started the 52 week challenge at I'm an Organizing Junkie you should have 9 areas of your house clean and put together. If you do - way to go! If you don't, you are not alone.

I started behind - about a month - because of Little Little's birth. Then I also have projects started but not finished. I don't have the money to finish these areas the way I want. That has not stopped me from starting a project and completing until I get to the point where I would have to spend money to finish it. I write down what I would like to get (or make) to complete the area and move on. Well this week is no exception, the basement.

That area is our family dumping ground as I am sure it is for many people out there. Don't know what to do with it? Send it to the basement. Don't have room for it on the main floor? Send it to the basement. Needs to go elsewhere but don't have time to take it there? Send it to the basement. Well our basement was starting to look like it belonged on Hoarders. Side note : I love that show. It motivates me to keep cleaning so I don't end up like the home owners featured on the show. I also get stressed out sometimes when it is really bad (just plain trash and animal ones really bother me) and have to turn it off. Dad likes that I get so worked up over a show. I don't know why he loves seeing me like that, but he laughs when I see the doors of the homes open and have a shear look of horror on my face. Back to my house.

I took some time the week back from the hospital and put some items away that were in the basement. That still did not do the job and our basement looked like this at the start of this week:


Lets see, a treadmill owned by my mother-in-law, a few boxes filled with who knows what, behind me is a mound of toys that belong to the Littles, and a craft table that hasn't seen a craft in over 3 years. Let me just tell you that this is a big improvement from what it was January 1st. Picture totes of clothes and many other items in this space as well. 

 This week I was determined to spend one hour a day down here and get it picked up. Just like every other project I have done so far I started in one area and worked around the room. In this room it was most important to start in the back and move to the middle. So on Monday I spent an hour working on the craft area and on Tuesday I turned around and worked on the toys. Dumping out things in a big pile and putting in a area designated for keeping, tossing and garage sale.  <--- I would NOT normally keep items for a garage sale because I HATE holding them. Thankfully my family does a very large one every year and all you have to do is bring your items priced with your initials. My aunts do the rest of the hard work and we have a big pizza party on the last day. So I am going to keep the items in my basement until June, take them to the garage sale and what doesn't sell we donate to goodwill.

I was not able to work more on Wednesday and Thursday because the Littles decided sleep was for the weak and were up all night. They also didn't do it at the same time and once I got one back to sleep the next would wake up. Lets just say when 9pm rolled around I was in bed as well. The basement does now look like this:
A work in progress

The toys are moved onto a mat that will protect the Littles when they are playing. I did not measure so I need to get a few more packages of tiles but I put down what I had on hand. We picked these up at Menards for 6.95 per set of 4. I need about 4 more sets to get the floor covered. Our basement leaked some a few years back so it was important to get something that we could lift up and replace in case it happened again.

This project also has some "need to do later" items. I want to build a better unit to hold the toys and act as a wall to keep the children more contained in the play area. Right now they have access to the hot water heater if I am not watching them like a hawk. Middle Little is very quick now so it is a dangerous situation. I also want to move the couch and craft table to make it a more workable area.

What did you do this week? Are there any areas you don't start because you can't finish the way you would like because of money/time restraints?

Thank you for stopping by. I now have to take a nap, the Littles are becoming quite the handful.

1 comment:

  1. Love your blog! I just became your newest follower! :) Your basement looks great!! I will be tackling mine soon!!

    http://purplebookbloggingmommy.blogspot.com/2011/03/staying-organized-cleaning-and.html

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