Not gonna lie -- I felt like I deserved a day of fun because I've been working my butt off on clearing the crap out of my house. Or decrapification as I like to say. :) I've been focused on the basement because it has the most to go through and we need to get that whole level organized before tackling the floors. We are pulling out all of the carpet and adding this flooring but I couldn't even fathom tackling that before I went through everything.
Most of our storage space is in the basement -- when we finished it years back I kept two spots as storage rooms. One is for the games and bigger toys and one is for my stuff.
But first I went through smaller pieces like this vintage cabinet we use for puzzles:
I got rid of the baby puzzles (sniff) and kept the newer ones we have yet to put together:
And a cat. There's always a cat.
I love that little cabinet -- I've had it for years and have always meant to extend the shelves inside (they only go about half the depth of the cabinet). But now there's no need to. Less stuff = less work for me.
Our little kitchenette offers some great extra storage down here:
One of the cabinets was so full you couldn't even see what was inside. I cleared it out and only kept some larger serving items that don't fit in my bookcase storage upstairs:
One of the biggest jobs was tackling the game closet. I've ignored this room for years and it showed. I don't know why I didn't take before photos of any of these -- I was just in a zone and didn't take the time. This inexpensive wood unit from IKEA does a great job of holding all the games. Can you tell we like Monopoly?:
Seriously. That's a lot of Monopoly games -- but the kiddo does so great at letting go of things, I let these slide. He loves that game. Of course the one that lasts three hours each time you play. ;)
Years ago I used a couple of these inexpensive laminate bookcases as storage in here, but I quickly realized going up served the space better. I kept one in here for random stuff:
Did you know Nerf guns are the hardest toys to store? They are. I found a big bin at HomeGoods that fits all of them. Those are not all ours by the way, some belong to the neighbor kids too. For real, that's a lot of Nerf. I guess we babysit them? I don't know.
My son got an air hockey table for Christmas and we don't have a good spot to keep it up all the time. It has legs that pull in and out easily to store it so I have it to the right when you walk in this closet. To prevent it from getting messed up when we pull it out I added some wheels to the end:
It's so much easier to pull out and put away now! And the wheels don't get in the way when we play either.
The biggest job in the basement was my storage room. I've reorganized it a few times over the years but it always became a mess again. This time I had kind of had it (with myself) and got really real (with myself). I got rid of more than half of the decorative items I've kept in here.
It doesn't look like I got rid of much from this view:
But I filled numerous boxes and bags for donation and to sell at a local consignment shop.
I've mentioned I'm reading this book about purging and organizing:
I love this book and it's truly changed our home -- it speaks to me and how I look at stuff around my house. It gives me the permission I needed to let go of things. It's a mental thing with me and always has been -- I keep things "just in case" and that comes from my need (from my childhood) to be thrifty and save money. It's a hard one to shake.
I've realized while reading this book that keeping things I spent money on but never using them is not honoring my desire to be thrifty or save money. At all.
So as I went through this room I asked myself the two questions I ask all the time now -- do I LOVE it and do I USE it. If not, the item went. And I started to see some empty shelves:
Keep in mind the floor was covered too. I've gotten rid of my big bins of fall decor in the garage and put those items down here so that stuff was added in. A lot of these items will go up to the loft that will become my office/craft room this year. I don't want it piled up there right now because we're finally getting the new floors installed up there later this month. I'm SO SO excited to start that space! I'm even more thrilled that our house will be organized like never before while I'm working on that room. I've never tackled a renovation project without the rest of the house becoming a disaster and I think it's going to be different this time.
I'm finding the less I have in this house the happier I am. I'm not a minimalist and never will be, but I can certainly appreciate why people are.
I got rid of so much in here I was able to remove some shelves and move our little fridge in here. The microwave will go back to the kitchenette soon -- we may make a slight change to that area when we put the flooring in. But for now both will say in here:
The best part -- do you see those empty shelves? I'm not going to fill them. They will stay empty. :) Years ago an open shelf meant I could fill it with something else. I swear I can feel our house breathing a sigh of relief with every empty spot. :)
Lest you think I have it all together -- I don't. There are still many piles down there that I need to go through. And the stairs are covered with all of the crap I need to take upstairs, put away or add to a donate pile:
It's taking forever but I'm telling you what -- this is the last time I plan to do this. From this point on I will monitor the house and our stuff as we go. NO MORE purges that last for months. It's funny because the author of that book says it will probably take about six months to get through the entire house. I totally scoffed at that at first. I can do this in TWO WEEKS I said. I am ridiculous. It takes forever to do this right.
I have given myself a deadline of this Wednesday to be done with the entire house and it will probably be Friday. I know I haven't shared much DIY and decorating lately and I will be back to that shortly. With every load of stuff I remove from our house I feel like I can breathe little easier and our house is easier to keep clean -- I want that for you too and that's why I'm sharing this journey. :)
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