Basement Progress

First, the junk men came out and hauled away all my carefully organized junk.

I took some photos to compare the before and after.

Before

After

Before

after

I know! They look exactly the same. Then I found the photo that will express how much progress has been made.

Tony and Alex standing by my junk. They were halfway done.

It looks like I'm junking perfectly good stuff, except for my grandmother's sewing cabinet which has gone legs up in the far corner. They load all the trash in first, then they organize the rest by the charity it goes to - Goodwill, etc.

It made me very proud I had organized it into a trash pile and a donation pile. Evidently sometimes they show up and there has been no preparation. People just start pointing at things.

They were very knowledable about my junk. They admired Gary's old bike, and spotted the pidgeon coop I paid $75 for at the Antique Mall (yes, it was possibly my worst decorating decision ever) and knew the name of the car featured in an old photo of my Dad.

Oh, and they put all of Gary's weights into that bench (the one under the Jane Fonda Steps) and hauled it all up at one time.

Now, most of the basement is in that stage of mid-organization when remaining stuff is piled in the middle of the room, but there is one corner that is complete.

The best part was finding that the plastic drawers fit perfectly in the corner.

You can't see it, but each drawer is labeled with the contents, and after I purged I found I have far more drawers than contents. Many drawers have only one thing. So, drawers are labeled "Tiny croquet set" and "small rubber chicken" and "millinery supplies."

And look at this workbench! It's like a man doesn't even live here!

Comments

[Becs]

Wow. Kudos to you! And was there any Gary interference?

[Kristie]

I am in complete awe. Only in my dreams...

[TheQueen]

Becs - OH MY GOD the paint. He's outraged I hauled the used paint upstairs. I put it in the garage so I could add kitty litter so it could be disposed of. Evidently unacceptable. Then I tried to negotiate that he'd put the cans in the car and I'd drive them to a recycling center. Also unacceptable! He wants to wait to see if we have enough room for the paint after I'm done cleaning up and he's putting the cans of old paint (12 barely used sample quarts and five used gallons) BACK DOWN IN THE BASEMENT. And he has told me this plan! Again I say "!"
Kristie - It's a been a dream for fifteen years now. And it's not like I'm hanging sheetrock or anything. Just cleaning up dead mice.

[Hot Mom]

Getting rid of all of that junk made your basement brighter.

[TheQueen]

Hot Mom - Blame the sun.

[bicycle safety]

Wow that was odd. I just wrote an really long comment but after I clicked
submit my comment didn't show up. Grrrr... well I'm not writing all that over again.

Anyway, just wanted to say great blog!

[Murphy Jacobs]

We once had a lot of old paint. When we moved away from our old house, we left every bit of it. I do not miss it. My husband has yet to say "Damn, I wish I had some of that old paint." The very few cans we have now are actually intended for finishing up baseboards (which neither of us is really jazzed to do) and doors.

I doubt seriously Gary would miss it if it vanished. Plus, it is possible to buy nice, shiny, empty paint cans that can be used to store stuff and make him THINK there is unused paint around.

Or you could go around the house and point out every spot on the wall that could use some fixing and paint touch up and say "Hey, it's your paint, Paint Man. Here's your list." And then you'd be justified in the "use it or loose it" point of view.

[TheQueen]

Bicycle - are our familiar with the Ross bike?
Murphy - actually, my fear now is the paint will stay in the basement forever.

[Caroline]

Do you have any usable pink paint?

[TheQueen]

Caroline - nope, not pink. Greens I can give you.