Today was a good day. My family was back to our normal Thursday routine of work and school after a snow day yesterday. Thursdays and Fridays are my normal days off from my part-time job and are my main painting days for my furniture refinishing business. The girls had a half day of school today because it’s the end of the semester grading period and they had basketball practice after school until 12:30. I slept late and did some computer work until I had to pick up the girls.
After we got home, all three of us went down to our basement to begin going through stuff that was just laying around. I am so happy that both of my daughters helped me so much. They mostly carried bags up to the living room for donated stuff or our back porch for trash. We didn’t go through boxes in detail, I just want to get the bigger stuff taken away before I start detailing in some areas. We cleaned out an old bar that was used for storage and I was excited to find some more of my Grandmothers’ China that I forgot that I had!! How can I forget a whole box of China? It’s pretty easy to do when you have too much stuff.
Yes, that is our floor! It is a far cry from what we started out with. This is what it looked like a couple hours earlier.
My husband and I built the storage shelves years ago, I believe it was our first DIY project in our home. Most of the items on the shelves are my Mom’s stuff. Photo albums, family videos, and several totes of ceramic chickens will stay and won’t be gone through. Funny story about these chickens, my Mom saw all the bags we had for a donation to our local thrift store. She jokingly asked Abby, my oldest, which bag her chickens were in and Abby pointed to a bag and told her that one. My Mom immediately started going through it, searching for a chicken(both of my girls are laughing now!) I came in and told her that nothing of hers was in any of the bags but she was upset and didn’t believe me. She finally believed me, didn’t think Abby’s joke was very funny and went home. We all call my Mom’s room her home, so when she comes out to the rest of our home and then goes back to her room, she says she’s going home. When my daughters go into her room, they say they are going to MeMe’s to visit. Having three generations living in the same house can be interesting at times, but I am so thankful that my Mom is here.
We ended up with 5 big black yard bags plus a few bigger items like a toaster oven, stereo, and sewing machine for donations and 3 of the same sized bags of trash. My hubby and the girls loaded all the donations in our van so Abby and I could drop them off. We still haven’t gotten all the trash out of the basement, my husband will have to take a load to the landfill, a couple of old TV’s, the 2 futons that are taken apart and the mattresses that go with them. So far we have taken 7 bags out for donations and 6 bags of trash.
We still have another room to go through in the basement. This is the area that I normally refinish my furniture in the winter months. This area has been a dumping ground over the past year. This room holds mostly Christmas decorations, gift wrapping materials and kitchen items that we only use a few times during the year. I want to go through all our decorations and get rid of the ones we don’t use. My Mother-in-law passed away a couple of years ago and I still have most of her decorations to sort. As you can see from the picture below, most of the clutter is Christmas stuff that needs to go on the shelves. I’m certain this part will go pretty quick.
I’m not sure that I’ll get to this area in the next few days, I have 2 pieces of furniture that I need to finish up.
I am very happy with my progress so far on my whole house DIY project. I plan on going about this in phases:
Phase 1 (General decluttering)
- Go through each space and take care of the things that are just laying around or don’t have a home.
- Sort into 3 piles, keep, donate or throw away.
Phase 2 (Detailed organization)
- Clean the area.
- Organize all the things we are keeping. I will be doing several DIY storage projects
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Thanks again for taking your time and stopping by, I appreciate you!!
Until next time!
Andrea
Andreas Uniquely Yours 