Anybody Wanna Come and Organize My Basement?

I LOVE tackling a HUGE mess and getting that sense of accomplishment when it's done. Too bad you don't live closer--lol

Start 2 days before trash pick up day.
Make 3 piles: trash, keep, donate
IMMEDIATELY put out the trash & drop off the donation pile.
Then CLEAN the basement (floor, shelving, etc.)
Then LABEL bins for little used stuff and put up high.
Keep often used stuff lower and in sight.

Have fun!

three piles: save, donate/sell & recycle/discard.

Anything which is broken, unusable goes immediately to the recycle/discard pile.

The donate/sell stuff needs to actually get out of the house, otherwise it might find its way back to your mess. To facilitate this, pre-book a charity to come by for pick up a month after your clean up begins.

Once you've done your initial purge, take a hard look at your keep pile. Winnow again - Do you have multiples of a thing? How many black sweaters, stress balls, casserole dishes, cordless drill sets does a person need? Are you holding on to something for sentimental value? Can you take pics of your childs' favorite toys and store those in an album rather than holding on to all the toys themselves? Are you really ever going to use it again? That ice cream maker that you bought at the clearance sale two summers ago is still unopened in its box (yes its perfectly good, but not doing much for you, is it). Aim to reduce another 50%.

Organize the remaining goods. Date mark them, so if they don't come out of circulation every year, they get put to the save, donate, trash scrutiny next year.

resist the impulse to acquire more stuff.

realize that stuff doesn't make your life richer, just full of more stuff.

good luck to you and yours.
F. B.

I would start with some big trash bags and throw away and donate as much as possible.

I did this with a neighbor... we spent 3-4 hours at her house and she spent 3-4 hours at my house helping each other to organize... it REALLY helps to have someone who is NOT emotionally attached to the stuff help you out b/c you end up donating/throwing out so much more stuff. good luck!

decide how much space you want to devote to stuff. If its and 1/16 of your basement or 1/2. Divide the basement into 4 and do one section a week. Create a toss pile, donate and keep. All garbage must leave the house that day that gets put on the toss pile, donate-plan on driving to good will that day and get a receipt so you can deduct them from your taxes. Keeps place in the clean corner. Next corner look back at your first to determine how much stuff you should look at getting rid of. Move all keeps to the first corner and do the same with the garbage and donate stuff, the faster it goes the harder it is to replace back to the keep pile. Continue until you are done with the basement. All stuff should be stacked up in the first corner. Now it's time to organize it and decide if you really need it all. Remember if you haven't touched it in a year do you really care about it enough to care for it, if the basement flooded it would be gone anyway, would you go out and replace the items you kept? Or would you just let them go. During the process of cleaning I always use the adage if you bring something into the home, something of equal size must go. This way you don't ever get the back up of stuff and a huge project to undertake.

All the posts are great.... three piles good... duplicate things get rid of. If you haven't used it in a a year move it out. I always go by the 15 min. rule. Work on an area for 15 min. if it goes longer great. but if you totally devote 15 min daily or several 15 min. segments it will be cleaned up before you know it. I read this in a book titled: "Simplify your life". Immediatel move it out as you clean up and then you will also see your progress