How to Declutter the Basement {The 6 Week Decluttering Challenge}

Congratulations! You have made it to the final week of The 6 Week Decluttering Challenge!  This week we will be working on the basement, garage or any other major clutter zone in your home that you would like to tackle.  I left this one until the end since it will probably be the most challenging of all the weeks, but I trust that you have learned a lot over the past 5 weeks and are now all decluttering gurus!  You’ve got this!

After doing a major garage organization project last year, our basement is now the last space in our home that still needs some major decluttering done.  In the past weeks of this challenge, I have showed you some photos of our finished spaces and given you some ideas of where to start with your own organization.  Well, this week, I don’t actually have a finished space to show you {although you may have caught a little peak on Instagram}. In reality, our basement is probably going to take me at least another month {which probably means two!} and I still have a lot more work ahead of me.  Like I explained in the challenge guidelines though, I have been breaking the job down into smaller projects and have actually made some major progress.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel!

 Here is your final worksheet to download.  Make sure you come up with some reasonable goals {remember you only have a week!} and stick to them.  Check out the end of the post for some extra tips on getting it done!

DOWNLOAD THE WORKSHEET HERE

Since I don’t yet have any pretty photos of our basement to show you, I thought that I would share a few of my basement inspiration photos {you can also find more on my Pinterest board} and tell you a little more about how our basement ended up in its current state.  Maybe some of you can relate to our story, and hopefully I can help some of you avoid this disaster all together!

{source}

When we first moved into our house, it was just Dave and I and we had way more house than we really needed at the time.  The basement was unfinished and really just served as a major storage {and junk collecting!} area for us.  Dave had boxes of stuff that he had moved in from his storage unit and anything that we didn’t know what to do with ended up making its way down to the basement.  Over the next couple of years, things really piled up, but since we had the extra space, I didn’t think much of it {big mistake!}.

{source}

Fast forward three years – we now had one child and I was just pregnant with our second.  We had also decided to take on the responsibility of caring for a man with special needs who required his own bedroom and bathroom.  This required us to finish the basement, which meant we had to do something with all of our stuff!  We created some extra storage shelving out in the garage {which we really just got organized last year}, but we were still left with boxes and boxes of stuff and a ton of random items.  Instead of going through everything at the time, we created a “storage room” that we left unfinished to pile all of our junk in {another big mistake!}.

{source}

I am a firm believer that junk attracts more junk.  Unfortunately, I have learned this the hard way.  Since our storage room was already messy, any time that I had something that I didn’t know what to do with, I just added it to our piles instead of dealing with it when I should have.

{source}

Over the years, the storage room piled up even higher, and the main basement family room became the place where everything went that I didn’t necessarily want to get rid of, but didn’t really love – old photo frames or candle holders that weren’t my favorites, items that I bought but didn’t really have a place for, the faded throw pillows that I had replaced in our upstairs living room.  After a while, I realized that I really didn’t want to spend time in that space anymore.  Instead of it being a place that I could go to enjoy and relax, it was an overwhelming reminder of all of the work I needed to do.  And the less time I spent there, the more I just used it as a dumping ground.

{source}

So… it is time to take back the basement!  After three trips to The Salvation Army and a few Craigslist sales, I now have the main family room space totally cleared out and decluttered.  There is still lots of work to do in the storage area, but one step at a time, right? 😉

So here are a few tips that I have learned for working on those really overwhelming spaces…

• Let It Go.
  When I first sorted through our basement belongings a couple of years ago, I ended up keeping tons of stuff that I planned on selling.  Years later, I still have boxes left that I either didn’t get around to selling or I tried to sell with no luck.  Be very careful when you are keeping items that you want to sell – think about how much time you will need to put into selling versus your return.  While you can make some good money on certain items, many things are just not worth it!  Choose the highest priced items to sell, and donate the rest. {You can find more tips on what to sell and what to donate here}.

• Touch items as little as possible.
  This basically serves two purposes.  First of all, you don’t want to be wasting your time shuffling items around from one pile to another. Secondly, the more you touch an object, the more likely you will want to keep it. Weird but true. Have your sorting boxes or bins {keep, donate, and garbage} close at hand and quickly sort each item into the proper category.  Once this is done, immediately put away those items that you are keeping, and get those items that you no longer need out of your house as soon as possible .  Make sure you don’t start sorting through it again and start second guessing yourself!

• Break down the task into smaller projects.
  Like I outlined in The 6 Week Decluttering Challenge guidelines, it is often very helpful to work on smaller, more “do-able” projects when you have a big space to work on.  Not only does this help to decrease those feelings of being utterly overwhelmed, but it also gives you a feeling of accomplishment that you can build on with each task.  Start by just going through one area in the room or one particular piece of furniture like a desk or shelving unit.  Write down all of your mini goals and have fun crossing them off your to do list as you go!

• Stay on Task.
  This is probably the most difficult for me but the one that makes the most impact.  Put on those blinders and just stick with the task at hand! Don’t go strolling down memory lane when you come across an old photo album or start wandering off to other areas of your house {even if you can come up with a good excuse!}.  I always find that it helps me to stay focused if I put on a timer for a set period of time while I am working, but maybe you like to have your favorite tunes blasting.   Whatever keeps you motivated!

• Make it Pretty.
  The prettier a space, the more likely you are to keep it clean and organized down the road.  While you don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, it can be a good motivator to keep you going – especially if you still have a lot of decluttering ahead!  Take a little time to beautify that space that you have already worked on.  It doesn’t have to be much – just a cleaned, organized area with a few of your favorite things to look at.  This will help you keep that end goal in sight and encourage you to move forward.

• Be realistic.
  This is another tough one for me as I am constantly underestimating how long projects will take and often run out of time.  A good rule of thumb is to always double your time estimate when planning out your goals.  There is nothing worse than spending a couple of hours decluttering and ending up with a bigger mess than you started with!  Remember that you want manageable projects that you can actually finish in your available amount of time.  This will give you a feeling of accomplishment rather than defeat!

Okay – time to get to it!!  Print out the worksheet, write out your goals, and start decluttering your way through your space!