3rd Times a Charm: Operation Basement Organization

I think everyone has "that room" that is the catch all. Most of the projects that we have done, the furniture, supplies and tools have ended up making their home in our downstairs bedroom. Once it came to actually taking on the room that was the catch-all, our basement turned into THE catch-all of all catch-all rooms.

We have tried in the past to clean it up and make it functional with no avail. Two times. Two fails. Each time we feel SO accomplished, then something happens. And by something happening I mean another project. With the downstairs bedroom, we took out the hardwood flooring and installed particle board. It turned out great, but the process to get from point A to point B left us with a TON of saw dust in the basement.

I am also a hoarder of furniture. Especially old furniture, or any furniture that I can get for free or for a reasonable price that has potential. With that said, our basement has been the resting ground for all of my "treasures".

Here is a preview of what is looked like the day before our house showing.

What a hot mess. That's all I'm saying.

Since the rest of our house looked pretty nice before the showing, we didn't want our basement to feel left out of things...AND we wanted to increase the odds that the potential buyer would like our house just a little more to put in an offer if the basement didn't look like a tornado went through. After a few hours, a lot of sweeping and cleaning we ended up with a much emptier, more organized and functional basement, and just in the nick of time!

Just in the nick of time because the guy who looked at the house the next day put in an offer. And we countered.....and he ACCEPTED! Since then, we've been running around, packing, loading up all of our stuff into two PODS and trying not to get TOO stressed out!

Here are a few comparisons since I LOVE the "before" and "after":

Before:

After:



Before:



After:




Before:




After:

It just shows that with a few hours, a lot of hard work and the panic of a house showing the next morning you can get ANYTHING done! But seriously, holy crap do we have a lot of stuff!