Arrrgh!!!

I know you'll never believe this, but I actually made a start on the mess we call our basement!

The Christmas and Easter decorations have been sitting in stacks on a sorting table in the basement, waiting for me to take the time to reorganize them and store them on the shelves at the wall. A number of years ago I began buying large plastic bins to store decorations. We have mice that think our basement is heaven during the winter, and I need to discourage them from making homes in the decoration boxes.

I spent two hours on Tuesday, and two more on Wednesday morning. I was astonished at what you can get done when you start before dawn and hustle for a couple of hours. Elegante Mother starts our holiday decorating, so I've grouped her things together to make it easier to find them. I have several boxes of table decorations, the nativity set, a box of ribbons, and two boxes of wreath making materials. The lights have been grouped in one area, and the wrapping paper is in another, and tree decorations in yet another. This year I may look into the boxes that exist for paper storage. I can save space, and protect the paper, too.

The Easter decorations were easy to organize. I have two boxes of bunnies, baskets, plastic eggs, and a stuffed rabbit that reminds me a little of Bugs Bunny. I still have a little reorganization of the shelves left to do, but that won't take more than 10 or 15 minutes tops.

In the opposite corner of the basement, we've stored business records from 1986 to 2005. I spent some time thinking about those boxes and decided we could make better use of the space. I moved a few things, to get a feel for what's there, and then dragged Dear Husband downstairs after dinner to get his help. Of course, it's never possible to do things my way, but I can deal with his modifications if they give us the chance to clean and organize the area. The boxes from 1986 to 1989 have been removed from the wall so that we can sort through them for contracts and tax documents, and we can pitch the rest.

In one pile, we are collecting outdated software and manuals. In another, I'll be gathering computer hardware. We have several computers that either need to be rebuilt or thrown out. There's no point in storing them if we're not going to use them, and there's an area drop off one Saturday a month for electronic stuff.

The most difficult part of this process is not having a dumpster where I can collect things as I clean. It's going to take a LONG TIME to clean this basement if it has to be done one garbage can at a time! But, at least we've made a start.