Our unfinished basement is a great place to work and play, but it was a huge mess and needed better storage solutions! After a LOT of purging and organizing, it’s better than ever. 

Have you been watching Marie Kondo’s new tidying up show on Netflix? It seems like so much of my feed on Facebook is taken up with friends chatting about the show and how no kitchen drawers or closets are safe.

I have been watching the show this week, but I have been working on decluttering our home for much longer. I generally try to keep clutter down on a daily basis, but it can be a lot more work to tackle the out-of-the-way clutter. Basements, hall closets, under the bed, etc.

That kind of clutter is out of sight (more or less) and not a big priority on any given day.

This fall, I had the opportunity to makeover our master bedroom. This time I wasn’t worried about new paint or wall decor. I surprised my husband with that a few years ago. This time my goal was seriously downsizing what we kept in our bedroom, as well as moving half the furniture out.

You can see the before and after of my bedroom declutter here. A dozen bags to toss and donate later, our bedroom is a haven at the end of a long day.

A handful of days before Christmas, my husband told me that a friend with a home inspection business would be bringing some trainees to inspect our house THE.NEXT.DAY.

Don’t worry, he was only in the doghouse for a little while. I didn’t have time to be upset for long. I had to get to work.

(And don’t tell him, but a couple hours in and I was thankful for the push to finally tackle the mess).

Our basement was one of the reasons we bought our house, but it can easily become a just dump and go space. Plus, with a crawling baby and a busy schedule, I hadn’t had the time to keep it tidy. (Sorry Marie).

Twelve straight hours of work later, and the space now totally sparks joy for me!

Organizing the Basement :: Before and After

If you want more of the details of the process, storage, and uses of the basement, you can check out the newest video on my YouTube channel. I recorded before and after tours (i.e., you can see more of the mess, errr, my sloppy shame). 

I won’t go into many details here, I’ll just give you the fun before and after pictures. Like many basements, ours is used for storage, playing, and as a workspace for my husband.

BEFORE

AFTER

I bought a set of shelves from Costco, but other than that, I simply focused on purging a LOT and thinking through better organization.

And that’s it! I love going downstairs and seeing all the open space, and my kids have enjoyed playing in the basement all the more. With consistent clean-up, we should be able to stay on top of tidying much more easily now!

Have you been tidying up your house recently? Are you a “little at a time” kind of person, or a “get it all done in a day” person? 

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