Organizing: Basement - aka decrapifying!

BEFORE I GET DOWN TO THE NITTY GRITTY OF THIS POST, I WANT YOU ALL TO KNOW D AND I HAVE LIVED IN OUR {SMALL} TOWN FOR 1 YEAR!  LAST FRIDAY WAS EXACTLY 1 YEAR THAT WE HAVE LIVED HERE AND TUESDAY WAS OUR 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY WORKING FOR D'S DAD...WE LOVE IT HERE AND COULDN'T BE HAPPIER!! :) :)

Sunday after lunch, D and I set out to clean out our basement!  It was time.  The weather was gorge outside on Sunday, which got me in the cleaning mood (wish I was like that all the time - HA!).  We started on it at 1:00pm and didn't stop until 7:00pm.  Yeah.  It was that bad.  I already hated going down there, because it's really creepy, dark, gross, but before we cleaned and organized everything, it seriously looked like something you would see on Hoarders!  I am not joking people...it was EXTRA CREEPY, plain and simple.  Now it doesn't look to shabby!  We felt very accomplished with how everything turned out! 

Now, first, let me kind of explain our basement to you.  It is not a basement we'll ever be able to refinish, it's just for storage.  It's nothing pretty to look at (remember it's CREEEPY!) and it's old.  Our house was built back in the late 30's to early 40's, and for some reason they put the floor furnace right smack dab in the middle of the room, so you literally have to duck or go around it.  Plus there are beams and pipes going every which way, and the ceiling isn't very high.  On one side there is a crawl space (which is even creepier to look at, I think), and goes under the stairs and ends on a ledge thing.  The one side is covered in this 60's-70's nasty fabric (we're thinking one day, we'll redo that!), and the side by the stairs is open.  There is also one side of the basement where it looks like the side might cave in.  However, I guess it's been like that forever and the previous owners said it hasn't changed.  It does make me nervy, so I try not to look at it (we plan on eventually getting some jacks for support on that side).  So that is the low down before I start showing pictures!

We first moved everything over (or most everything) to one side of the room and started going through boxes of stuff.  Here are the befores (taken after we moved most everything to one side of the room and started going through stuff; taken on my phone)...

looks like an episode of Hoarders...eeek!

We put up shelving units (nope, none of them actually match...oops!) to house pantry/everyday items, Bernie's food, camping and hunting stuff, canning goods, etc.  We actually had a lot of almost empty and empty boxes down there from when we moved in, so we went through everything.  If we didn't have a use for it, if it was trash, or something we didn't need, we got rid of it by either putting it in a garage sale/goodwill pile, or throw away pile (there was a lot of that!).  We utilized empty tubs and those plastic rolling drawers to house certain items.  I even had to use the shop vac to suck up the dirt on the floors and cobwebs at the ceiling.  By the time we were done, there was a huge pile of empty boxes and a lot of stuff we tossed; I wish I would've taken a picture of that part.  So after all of the sorting, organizing, purging, decrapifying we did, it turned out pretty darn good!  Here is our basement after!


Random Chair, Red Tub, and pictures on back dresser
are part of the garage sale/goodwill pile

 

So organized and clean!



Labeled all of the tubs and remaining boxes
so we know what's in each container!

Some of D's hunting and camping/survival stuff



Our painting/house hardware cabinet

 
Eventually our shelves will be full of pantry stuff, but that is going to take some time (and $$).  We are also planting a garden this Spring, so hopefully we'll can some stuff.  2 Summers ago we had a small garden when we still lived in the big city, but we never did can anything.  We just froze it all and used the veggies as we went along.  I like the idea of canning much better!

Had to show you it's right in the middle!

 

Oh yeah...I hope I can do it!!

So this beaut was left here from the previous owners, which they said it was there when they purchased it 11 years ago!  So I'm thinking she's been down there for quite sometime now.  They tried moving it, but it was really heavy so they left it.  I doubt I'll be able to paint it if it's that heavy, and our stairs are way too steep to carry something like that up it.  Like I said, I don't like our basement, so if I am brave enough I want to clean her up, wipe all of the cob webs and dust off, and vacuum out the drawers.  I think she would be perfect for my craft and gift wrapping supplies.  What do you think?!  So stay tuned to see if I can work up enough courage to do it!!!

So do you have a creepy basement that you hate going down into, or is it just me?!


Linking up to...
The Shabby Chic Cottage
Somewhat Simple