Today, I’m doing something pretty brave, you all…I’m showing you our super messy, super embarrassing basement. So far, you’ve only seen the chair room and the jar storage and the paint shelves. You’ve also seen the utility room…but honestly, our basement is big…big and messy…so there’s more to see, I promise.

Now, keep in mind that it’s messy down there for three main reasons:

1. We don’t “live” down there yet so things get shoved, stored, and stashed down there in favor of having a cleaner upstairs.
2. We haven’t tackled any form of overall organization plan (what goes where and so on) since we moved in so everything has just literally been piled with no real form or fashion.
3. We have a lot of stuff.

The third reason is perhaps the most troubling. After all, we’re both young and we don’t have any kids so there’s no real reason we should have this much clutter…although the majority of what’s down there is in some way related to a project we’ve done, plan to do, or someday dream of doing. If only we were as productive as our plans.

But I digress.

Yesterday my mom came up to help me tackle the disaster and here’s how it looked about an hour into our labors:

 

Just remember things always get worse before they get better…organizational wise. At least, in my experience.

Yikes, right?

I’m seriously ashamed right now.

We worked for several hours, probably about five, and when we finished, we had this to show for it:

That dresser and headboard (now being used as a hutch) is from my bedroom set at my parents’ house. It’s no longer very nice (as children’s furniture usually isn’t) but it’s still very functional even if it isn’t very pretty. Guess what’s in those drawers? Fabric! (Someday, I’ll learn to be a less reluctant seamstress…my heart’s in the right place…it really is!)

I also grabbed/reused a few of these stacking storage drawers because they are super handy and pretty cheap when compared to regular furniture. I know they aren’t pretty, but that’s okay, right? It’s just a basement storage room. I won’t be inviting the queen down there or anything.

The chair room is also looking better. (Mostly because the chairs are now in the kitchen. (See this post.)

And overall, things are a lot more organized.

We even moved into the built in cabinetry down there (which had been shamefully empty this entire time!).

And, we shoved all the garage sale stuff into an organized little corner of our storm shelter room…where you can also see our canning efforts so far this season.

And  you can see all the various computer parts and pieces Hubs one day wants to tinker with. (I’m not a fan of that recent collection…)

 

Of course, there’s a lot more to do down there and a lot of what needs to be done involves actually opening all the boxes we organized to sort through and cull out everything. (Do I really need ALL those keepsakes from high school? Probably not…) And maybe by then, some more of these projects will be finished…Maybe? Hopefully?

Anyway, that’s how we made progress yesterday. There’s something about the onset of future winter weather that always makes me want to get super productive. What did you get done?