...spider killer by night

I have a HAUGE fear of spiders...it's huge! I think I saw about 45 hanging out in my basement today. Thanks to my trusty dusty Shark vac, they no longer dwell in my downstairs! We moved into our house a little over a year ago, and we still had boxes to unpack. I hate to admit that, but the basement was one of those places that got let go. One day Boyfriend's plan is to make it into his "man cave". I kept putting things down there saying "Well I'll just clean it up when we start finishing the basement." Turns out, we won't be finishing the basement anytime soon...so it was time to start cleaning.

Here's what the basement looked like before:

That's all of the holiday stuff...

That's all the random furniture that we don't know what to do with...

And this is the "I have no idea what to do with this stuff" stuff.

So I rolled up my sleeves, put in my favorite CD and got to work. The first rule of thumb for me with organizing is: Clear the space. It's so frustrating and hard to organize an area that is full of piles of stuff. So the first thing you should do is clear it out completely. I decided to try something new down there too. I didn't like how ugly the walls were, so I covered them with some sheets that we don't use anymore. Now, when I go down there to get decorations, I have a clean looking and feeling area to dig look through.

The picture makes it look smaller, but really there's tons more room. And now that ugly sump pump is covered up. (I didn't show it earlier cause it's just that ugly) GLEE!!

So once the area was cleared out, I went through all of our bins and made sure we still needed everything in them. Also...clever me realized that the dresser we had residing down there was great for storage! I'm a flippin' genius. So I dug through the bins and pilled stuff in drawers. And before you know it, the area finally came together.

One thing I did here to help my sanity make it easier to find decorations was to place a clear bin on top of each pile to signify which season was in each row. That way, I know right where to go to find Christmas and Fall and any other season. I'm so dang giddy! This also means less digging around spiders! Awesome!

I also put all of the furniture in one spot together:

And the stuff pile minimized greatly...which also increased our Goodwill/garage sale pile:

I do realize we don't have as much stuff as most families out there, but the fundamentals are the same. Just clear the space first and foremost, and then go from there. I'll give out other tips soon, but this is by far the most important. Stop trying to play Tetris with your closets, give up the fight of cramming one last bowl into that cabinet. Take everything out and start from there. I promise you it will help with the organizing.

I have a funny question to ask...does anyone else out there still have their VHS tapes from when they were younger? I do, and for some reason I just can't part with them.

Some I have on DVD as well, but I just can't throw away that smushed down white plastic video case. Does anyone else feel the same way, or do I just need to cut the cord and get rid of them? Let me know!!

Share some of your basement organizing redos too! Be back soon with some advice on those pesky closets. Have a happy Monday!