“Out with the old! In with … nothing!” my husband declared as we reclaimed our basement this week. And I loved it. Imagine the joy of a dude wielding a shop vac on years-old dead bug debris.
Thanks to a bit of time off work, we had the rare chance to tend to our neglected basement.
Being homeowners for more than three years now, I’m just beginning to live into some annual rhythms of home maintenance. Our seasons are differentiated as the “months of sand” and “months of snow melt.” I finally understand that, whatever the season, there will be dirty floors :)
And whatever the season, our basement will take a beating. We store all of our off-season outdoor gear (summer camping and winter snow, respectively) here. As well as loads of extra books and toys.
Yes, here lies the infamous toy library. Our system is to trade toys one-for-one between upstairs and downstairs. That’s a post for another day.
I now come to expect that winter break will make a special mess in the basement. Between the holiday decoration tubs that I’m too impatient to put away, and the many days at home using the toy library, we are down here a lot but without the time to keep it tidy.
Here’s the before:
I’m not even going to play at being embarrassed because the truth is I think this is NORMAL.
It is normal to let parts of our home get messy because usually we have much more important worries, like feeding our mouths and shoveling the drive. Even acknowledging that is was paid time off that allowed us to finally clean down here means it was a privilege.
If someone can take the time to vacuum dust bunnies in the basement, then we have to acknowledge that all of our other physical and emotional needs have probably been met. (Though I will say that cleaning does meet a certain emotional need, can I get an amen.)
That said, I take deep pride in taking good care of my belongings. This includes my house as well as the items in it. The leading reason I donate things is because if I keep them then I know I’m committed to caring for them. I don’t let things get trashed. So if I don't care enough to take good care of something then I will find it a better home.
Are you ready to see the after pictures?
Because I absolutely went down alone with my first cup of coffee this morning just to bask in the finished space.
We got rid of 2 medium-sized boxes of toys and Christmas decorations. We moved a lot of the big toy items into another unfinished basement room, which the kids now call “The Dirtiest Playroom (TM)”. We vacuumed bug guts. I deconstructed my own old, elementary school photo collage and put the photos somewhere more suitable. And that’s about it.
My husband and I make a good team because I’m eager to cull the herd of items, and he’s actually the one patient enough to organize and put things away in a meaningful manner.
I am proud. I am thankful. I’m ready to move on and accept we’ll do this all over again next year. If we’re lucky.