Workin' Hard

Shari asked in the comments for an update on the decluttering ... which made me feel guilty for sitting around in my "work clothes" not working. So I went to the basement to work. I decided that, for the moment, instead of decluttering I'd continue my project of ripping out the old closet in there, the one built poorly out of pressboard but glued and nailed in so many places that it was hard to get any purchase on. Anyway, I had to call on The Grand Lunar for help, but together we pounded, wrenched, pried, banged, and got it all out.

Whoooo!

Of course, now I've got a heap of mildewed pressboard and boards and trim all broken and naily. And An exposed wall and floor with globs of old black glue.

I think that I'm going to tidy that area up as much as possible but NOT try to paint and pretty it. A 65 year old foundation that seeps isn't going to have a cheap or easy fix, so I think just living with it for now is our only option. I'll maybe get some of the strong heavy duty plastic shelves and store things in there. Then I can clear the *storage* things out of the other basement room and use my paint and effort to make that one room a play and craft room.

So ... the decluttering. It's not going too bad. For me, anyway. I have made more progress than I expected. I discovered that a lot of the stuff isn't mine to decide, I'll be calling in The Grand Lunar on all the software, computers, and Star Trek paraphernalia. I have two 30 gallon bags of trash (one not yet full, but it will be!) and a pile of boxes to go. There's a few items still in the "maybe keep, maybe give" pile ~ a lot of it hinges on how useable I can make that room. If I can turn it in to a nice play room it would be a great place to play with the two boxes in question. They are things that have lived in the basement but the children DO ask about from time to time, and we bring them up for a little while. But most of the little obnoxious miscellaneous toys that added up are packed up and ready to go.

I did take 'before' pictures, which I won't post until there's a good after, but I will take a picture of the "get rid of" pile before they go out.

One funny story - as I was going through piles of boxed I found one that I wasn't sure what it contained. When I opened it, it was a half-filled box from LAST year's church yard sale attempt. Whooops! But at least it was one more box half-done for THIS year. And THIS year I won't forget to finish it off.