I haven’t posted in awhile, so I decided to put my summer project into several posts.

In this situation, I actually begged the homeowner to let me help her with her basement, so we started there.

Most of us start with some sort of organization in our storage areas, but between sicknesses, letting the kids put stuff away, visitors that need a room fixed quick, etc….they usually end up wrecked. So I’ll give you a few tricks that work for me.

 

1. Start with your pathway:

You’re going to be carrying stuff from one end to the other to put items away into your original systems. I started on this pathway before I took a picture so the “before” is more of an “in between”

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 

2. Dress it up:

Most spaces are going to be storage spaces, but I’ve always maintained that if you don’t designate a purpose to an item of furniture, then it will turn into a junk holder.  Sometimes we have extra furniture and it lives in the basement. My tip is to turn that furniture into a seating area, or craft area, etc…so that it becomes a functional space instead of a stacking space.

BEFORE:

        

 

AFTER:

                   

 

3. Label and coordinate:

Most holiday décor  gets put away quickly in the same boxes we got them out of, and with no thought about the convenience of setting it back up the next year. We even buy new cute containers most years and just put our “new” stuff in them. It will save a lot of hassle during the holidays to go through your décor just once and take them by areas they will be put in, what kind of décor they are, etc. THEN, put the different décor in coordinating boxes for each location/use and LABEL. My homeowner really showed me how convenient a label maker can be! Here’s our “for instance”. The homeowner had a Christmas village collection that was displayed some years and stayed stored some years. We put all of these into matching containers and labeled them “village”. We also had matching and labeled containers for the mantel décor, the tree ornaments, Christmas books etc.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

        

 

4. Rubber bands and baggies are your friend:

Over the years, I’ve accumulated some different tactics for household items. For cords: I love to use rubber bands. You don’t have to coil them too tightly and you don’t have to try and make a twist tie fit. Another useful tool is the baggie. When you have a lot of small pieces and it would be easier to have them on hand than to sort through a big tub of them, baggies of all sizes come to the rescue. In this instance, her spouse works with a lot of computer items and had a lot of cords of all different kinds. Separating them became a big game and a running joke…and the silly labels are just to keep it a fun experience.

 

BEFORE:

fun with baggies and rubber bands:

  

                    

AFTER: