But first, we declutter

Hey all! WHEW – I have been working my tail off on our basement over the past week. It’s been exhausting, liberating and a little disturbing all in one. :)

Every single year in January, I start a massive decrapification of our house. I go room by room, putting all the STUFF I’m not sure about in the basement. And then after I’m done with every. single. room…I start on the basement.

That’s usually around August, just in time for the fall decor bins to start creeping out. And then the holiday mess in the basement begins…mixed in with the rest of the stuff from the house.

It’s a recipe for an absolute disaster. I feel like I’m working on cleaning out the basement constantly, all year long…because I am. Gah. What’s that definition of insanity again?

I finally realized a solution this year – first of all, I need to start with the basement. Then I’ll have a spot for the STUFF from the rest of the house. And if I don’t have a spot, I’ll know it’s gotta go. Which brings me to my next revelation – we have way, way, way too much stuff.

I know, I say that a lot, and I get rid of a lot every month…every year. But as I get older, my tolerance for stuff is getting less and less. I just don’t want anything that’s not meaningful, pretty, or useful in our home. If it’s not one of those things to us, it’s OUTTA HERE.

Buh bye. Don’t let the door hit you in the patoot.

So, with all of that in mind, I started with the basement last week. The befores are not pretty. Prepare yourself.

My craft “room” started like this last week (excuse the poor iPhone pics):

It’s like this half of the year, and did I mention I’m SO OVER IT?

I ask you, who can craft in this?:

 

Holy cats, it’s giving me hives just looking at the pictures. Did I mention I was over. it? This is the very last time I will have to do this – mark my words.

It helps to have thousands of people mark your words. ;)

I’ll give you a little tour of the space first, because I’m just so darn proud of it! First, the wrapping shelves, which were filled before:

I keep a TON of gift bags – so I went through all of them and tossed (or donated) any that weren’t in great shape, or that I just didn’t like. If I wouldn’t have picked it out myself, it was gone.

Why? Because otherwise I knew it would continue to sit there for YEARS (like some of them had). And I was over. it.

I also had so many little random gift boxes – boxes I’ve kept for probably 10 years now. Seriously…OH EM GEE. Will it kill me to get a box from the dollar store if I need one?

Ridiculous. You can’t see in that picture above, but the bottom two shelves are now pretty much empty. It is a glorious thing.

WHOOHOO!!

Next up is my crafty stuff. This area was more reorganizing than purging:

I separated everything into categories -- wood crafts, random crafty stuff, paint, ribbon, contact paper/wallpaper and a big bin at the bottom that holds all holiday crafts.

By the way, do you see that empty spot on the shelf? Gleeeee!

My decorative stuff is next:

This was a HUGE purge – and it wasn’t easy. I had to pry a few things out of my own hands. I held each piece in my hand and asked myself – have I used it lately? Do I love it? How much would it cost to replace? Do I love it?

Do I really, really, I’m-not-even-kidding, this-is-insane, REALLY love it? If not, gone.

(I still think I kept too many candles, but you should have seen what I had before.)

On a quick side note – I’ve used these plastic shelves for years and luuurve em! They hold a ton of weight, it takes about five minutes to put them together, and they’re cheap! I’ve gotten them from both Target and Lowe’s.

I like to install the shelves backwards for decorative stuff, so there’s a little lip at the front edge:

It keeps things from sliding off. :)

I was determined to only use what I had to organize everything, so a lot of the stuff is in random baskets:

Looks like a farmer’s market, eh? ;)

It’s hard for me to part with lamps. They’re not cheap and they’re so easy to redo -- but they take up so much space. I moved them up to the top so they are out of the way:

Next up – the tools (happy sigh):

I’ll tell you right now – I don’t purge tools. :) Tools (usually) aren’t cheap, and if I buy something – I know I’ll use it. It stays.

Back away from the tools peeps!

I keep the major power tools in the garage, but the smaller ones I keep in small bins down here:

 

I’ve had them organized like this for years and it works great (for me!). I can’t do a big toolbox – the organizer in me needs separation and labels. ;)

The last set of shelves is one I’m pretty excited about. First of all, because it’s half empty:

Secondly, because I decided I want a mini-pantry of sorts down there. Not for food, but for entertaining pieces, party supplies, surplus paper products – all that stuff that I don’t have room for upstairs.

LOVE!! :)

(YES, you can see adult diapers sticking out of one bin, and NO they are not for us. :) We use them as piddle pads for pee cat. Long, long, story.)

Many of you have seen my craft table:

The table is really a large, (nasty), metal folding table. I covered the top in fabric and then hot glued a “skirt” around it (with cheap muslin). Talk about a transformation! It’s so dang cute, I can’t even stand it!!

My life is complete with colorful supplies, a picture of my baby Bub, a coaster for my hot chocolate and my silicon hot pad that I rest the hot glue gun on:

:)

I found a spice organizer at Goodwill forever ago and knew it would be perfect for the glitter:

I hung it up on the pole next to my table and it’s just perfect!

My craft room -- purged, organized and with EMPTY space:

I feel about 150 pounds lighter. :)

I like decluttering and it was still a monster. But I’m SO glad I got this done, and in January? I’m ready to tackle the rest of the house!

Maybe next week. ;)

Let’s take a look at the before and after again, shall we? Cause it’s pretty fantastic!!:

It took four days of working down there every free minute. But it was so worth it – I’m just not doing it ever. again. Did I mention that? ;)

Sooo…what are YOU working on? Spill it! It can’t be as bad as my before. Really.

P.S. Anything I don’t want the Bub to get to it placed up on the higher shelves. He doesn’t get into any of my stuff anyway. Yes, he’s that good. :)

P.P.S. I’m taking some of stuff to Goodwill, some to the consignment shop. That’s my standard after-purge protocol.

Before and After Party: Choo choo!

Hello there! I hope you had a fantastic Labor Day weekend! I got SO MUCH DONE – I labored way too much and rested too little.  ;) I cannot wait to show you what I worked on – squeallllll!! (I’ll show you tomorrow!)

So anyhoo, I’m pretty proud of this project because I built it with my own two hands…I can decorate and saw and craft and organize and drill like no one’s business, but I rarely actually build stuff.

It was FUN. :)

Let’s start with the before…part of our unfinished basement I showed you last year:

The basement has undergone a huge transformation, again. I’m still working on it, but the level of decrapification is high. Like, big time. HUGE.

When I posted the basement last year, we had just started using the space for some of the Bub’s toys. Recently we’ve been moving more and more down there, making this area more of a toy room. I had bought the train table at Goodwill for $10 just to have a flat play space down there – the majority of the train stuff was still up in the loft.

A little over a year ago, back when I was doing the decorating thing, I was at a client’s house with the Bub – most of my client’s had kids and welcomed my kiddo when I was just swinging by. (Big bonus of the decorating gig!) They had a fabulous finished basement, with a HUGE train table set up. My client mentioned that her husband had built it and both the Bub and I were in awe. :)

It was huuuuge! She explained how her husband had put it together and I knew right then I HAD to do it. Well, it only took me a year, but I finally did it! It’s insanely easy, and it started with one large piece of plywood – it was four by eight feet.

I had the guys at Home Depot cut it into three equal pieces for me – four feet by 32 inches each. Then I bought a ton of legs – they had different lengths –- 12, 15 and 21 inches I believe. I figured 15 wouldn’t be quite tall enough, and 21 was too tall, so I got the 21 inchers and cut them down to 18. 

(You could save a TON of cash by just getting 2 by 2’s and double ended screws and creating your own legs – but the ready made legs were way faster to install.)

Because the corners were pointy and a wee bit dangerous, I decided to round them off a bit. I used a spray paint can (because it was closest round thing I could find) and simply put it on each corner, outlined the bottom of the can, then cut it with a jigsaw:

I’m sooo technical. Whatever works, right? :)

My client’s hubby used Astroturf-type stuff for the top of their train tables, but I wanted something a bit softer (and cheaper!), so I just got some green flannel from Joann’s:

With a coupon it was less than $10! I just laid down each table face down and “upholstered” them like I would a chair:

You can see the brackets for the legs here too – you just screw those in, then twist each leg into the bracket. Easy peasy!

That’s it! I was going to brace each table by installing wood between each leg, but they were surprisingly sturdy as is. I did add a leg to the center of each table for a little more support – in case the Bub decided to climb the train tables.

Which he has. :)

The BIG added bonus of these is the extra storage! My original plan was to skirt each one with some fun fabric, but once I got them up I wanted it to be as easy as possible for the Bub…or ME…to slide the bins in and out:

I love these bins by the way! Five bucks each at the Deals store -- they come in fun colors and they hold a ton! LURVE.

Extra bonus – all of the Thomas stuff that was up in the loft is going down here – whoohoo!! My husband son has created quite a collection, so I’m glad to get them all down here where he can really spread them out:

I mean, come one – that is some serious train table goin’ on. Hubby has big plans to get one killer Thomas set up going on these. The Bub may be involved as well.  ;)

And I may or may not be the coolest Mama around right now. This puts me way over the top. Awww yeah.

So my before and after for this month – one wimpy (but cheap!) train table before:

And the my-mom-rules, DIY train tables after:

I hope to show you the completed basement redo next week. :)

Now it’s your turn! Link up your before and afters! Just a reminder – please link to your post, not your blog! (Folks look at these for months and I want to make sure they get to the right post.)

I’ll have the linky open through next Monday. Have fun!!