Okay, I AM bragging. I have a reason to toot my own horn! I have been putting off this task for FOUR YEARS! Count them...FOUR!!!! Since we bought this house.
It all started when we moved here. We bought this house specifically because it had an unfinished basement. (Mike wanted to finish it just the way he wanted it - with a workshop, a home theater and a few other rooms thrown in for good measure.)
There was a storage room downstairs. It was the only room downstairs. It was loosely defined by the steps and the water heater, furnace and water softener. It was where we shoved a lot of the moving boxes. Mike put up shelves to further define the "room", and stuff got piled on. You know the kind of stuff - the humidifier we haven't used since the kids were toddlers, my Currier & Ives dishes, two milk crates of thermoses, camping items, Christmas ornaments, wreaths, miscellaneous junk from the depths of who knows where.
Three years ago, when Mike started the "Big Basement Remodel," all the moving boxes that we never unpacked (stuff that we don't use everyday, but had to keep - like Mike's Engineering Books, a rock polisher, my mother's wedding china, golf clubs that have been used three times, material for an unfinished quilt, crutches, suitcases, a punchbowl, wrapping paper, sleeping bags) it was shoved into that room, that Mike eventually walled in to make an actual room. By this time, not only were the shelves full, the floor was, too. And it was full of things we needed and things we no longer needed nor wanted.
We kept things like out of season clothing in there in rubbermaid tubs. The kids would go down there and dig through their tubs of clothes. Of course they were always careful to put things away properly. NOT! They used the same careful consideration when going through the extra office supplies I kept in a rubbermaid tub. (I love my rubbermaid tubs!) So, the room became a room of dread. So, I did what I do naturally when I have a big project to do...I avoided it like the plague! And, I found excuses not to clean it! And, I usually found an excuse to go shopping on ALL the days I could have been cleaning the storage room.
Except last Saturday. Last Saturday I broke down. Mike was cleaning his workshop and organizing. He does that. Naturally. It's really annoying. It's in his blood. He loves to organize and cannot understand why the world does not love to clean and organize. He thinks it should be an Olympic sport. When he comes home from work I'm sure he looks around and wonders what in the world his wife was doing all day. Even though I have been cleaning and organizing all day. Oh - and blogging. :) Oops.
Anyhow - I digress. (Maybe this is my organizing problem? Perhaps.) Saturday, Mike was doing his usual everyday thing. Organizing and cleaning. (He was PLEDGING his workshop table! I kid you NOT!) So, I went into the storage room and began. I worked my little tail off (Sigh. No I didn't. It's still there. I looked.). I gave Bridgette instructions on what to make for dinner. (It was funny - I had no clue - I had been CLEANING all day, for Pete's sake! I was like "Defrost this burger and add this can of corn and this can of kidney beans and boil this macaroni and this can of cream of mushroom soup. Yeah. That's it!" She asked what it was and I said "Uh - Goulash!" She asked what that was and I said..."Ummm...Hungarian!" and she was all impressed that we were eating something foreign. Isn't she a hoot?) Mike made me break for dinner, even though I wanted to work through. (I think he was worried that I was being a little too driven. Silly. But cute. Love that man!) And then I finished.
Lucky for me, I already had the Lupus Foundation coming for a pick up on Thursday! I have at least 15 bags (yep, I'm not lying...in fact, I admit I am being quite conservative because I am embarrassed...but I also had the kids go through their out of season and they both outgrew their whole wardrobe...so that's a bunch of it) of stuff for them to pick up! I feel like Wonder Woman!
My friend Melissa and I have been talking for at least two years about helping each other clean out our storage rooms.
Yes, I have already sent her an email bragging that I have gotten mine cleaned!
6 comments:
I know how intense that job is, so BRAVO a hundred times over on getting that done! Woohoo!
Go mess it up again. I want to see before and after pics!!
I love it! Doesn't it feel wonderful to finally have accomplished a task like that? I bet you go down and look at the room every now and then just to remind yourself of how hard you worked! :)
Good job, friend! You've made this woman proud :)
So... your kids have no clothes now?? I really need to do this too... But where to start and when to find time? Someday.
Heather - there is no way on God's green earth I would admit to the world how that room looked! It was THAT bad! But, it is pretty amazing right now, I must say...
And, McVal...this is why I talk about my trips to Goodwill...for Bridgette anyhow. If I truly had to purchase Hollister and Abercrombie and Tommy Hilfiger firsthand, I'd be broke! We're working from the bare bones here...this is why I rejoice at $1.49 day! I am the bargain queen!
Congrats Pennie! I was forced to do that when we put our house up for sale....it felt so good to donate a bunch of items and at the same time de-clutter the basement :)
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