6 Great Tips to Reorganize Your Messy Basement

How many times have you ventured into your disorganized basement and then turned around to head back upstairs, scared at the time it would take to turn it into something that you could use and be proud of?

Several years ago, I decided to have some beautiful shelving, cabinets and a desk built into my basement, since my ultimate goal was to create an office space.  However, after this was done, I continued to pile extraneous things into it, creating clutter and disorganization.  It was rapidly becoming a space that was not conducive to thinking and working.

Fast forward to retiring from my primary career, and entering into part-time work, as well as creating my own entrepreneurial, consulting business.  I realized that my goal of creating my basement office space was becoming extremely important.  Participating in ZOOM meetings and in videos required an area that was removed from the constant upstairs noise, and the basement provided an excellent area for this.   And so, the reinvention and reorganization of my basement office was now slated to become a reality and a priority.

The following are the questions I asked and steps that I took to recreate my basement office:

  1. What do you want to do with the space, and is it large enough? I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my basement space.  I wanted to divide it into two sections.  One would be the office area, where I would do my work, and keep my files and teaching supplies.  The other area would be devoted to exercise.  I would have my treadmill in that area, along with other small pieces of exercise equipment.
  2. Are you using all available space efficiently?  I was not using my built-in shelves efficiently.  They were a mess, non-functional and totally disorganized.  When you walked into the basement, this is one of the first things that you saw, and it was an embarrassment.
  3. Could I use the help of an interior designer to create a dual-purposed space? I engaged the help of an interior designer who created 3-dimensional renderings of what my new space could look like.  Additionally, she helped me with the carpeting and furniture selections, as well as with how to use framed pictures and new paint colors to liven up the room.

The following were the steps I took to reorganize and reinvent my basement:

  1. Discarded excess items and created more space:  I had a free-standing coat rack on which I hung 25 old handbags and tote bags.  It was so overloaded that it had toppled over many times.   I removed this eyesore and dumped many of the bags, keeping only those that I really needed.

I had also collected many stuffed animals which I was storing downstairs, taking up space and collecting dust.  Almost all of the stuffed animals were discarded, too.  This opened up the entry into the basement.

  1. Placed ‘like’ items together:  In several areas of the basement, I had a mess of tapes, CD’s cassettes, LP’s, photographs, and a combo cassette tape, LP, and CD player.  They were strewn all over the place and I couldn’t locate specific items when I needed them.  I also had an enormous collection of photographs dating back to when I was a teenager and forward.   My collection of stationery items, occasion cards, letterhead and notecards were also very disorganized, making it difficult to find something when I needed it.

The textbooks that I used for my teaching were also very disorganized.  Many of them were thrown over desks and the tops of credenzas, not making use of the built-in shelves that I had made. I had a large collection of unused picture frames in all sizes.

This took the greatest amount of time.  I took a long, portable table, placed it in the middle of the basement, and put all of my stationery items on it.  I did the same with the media and photographs.  This enabled me to see exactly what I had, what I could toss, and then reorganize all of it so that ‘like’ items were neatly arranged next to each other.

The stationery items were placed on my built-in shelves and put in plastic bags.  Occasion cards were also placed in plastic bags.  Everything was labeled.  Now I can buy some decorative storage boxes for them.

TIP:  If you like to use decorative storage boxes, arrange the items you want in them before you buy the boxes.  After you see how the arranging looks, you can then buy the boxes.

All media was organized and put on shelves as well.  LP’s and CD’s were arranged in their respective groups. The combo LP, CD, and cassette player was moved next to the sound media.    Photo albums were put together and photographs were placed in bins on shelves. Old, broken, picture frames were discarded, and the remaining ones stored in a large bin.

  1. I engaged the help of Dafna Adler, Interior Designer:  https://www.interiorsbydafnaadler.com

to create a 3-dimensional rendering of what my new space could look like.  The rendering showed how my new space would look, by dividing the room into a workout area and a work space.  Dafna also assisted me with selection of an area rug, additional furniture and placement of paintings.   When completed, the basement was truly transformed and is now an area where I can enjoy exercising, as well as working on my businesses.

Let me use the benefit of my organizational experience to help you unclutter and reorganize your basement.  We can do this virtually, or you can email me photographs of what your basement currently looks like, and we can chat.  Contact me at ruthleahfrankel@gmail.com, or my website, pivotandretire.comand let’s work together to transform your basement from MESSY to MARVELOUS!

 

(Thank you to Congerdesign by Pixaby for the photo.)