Basement: Planning

Org Junkie is hosting the 29 Day Organizational Challenge. Just like Maxwell of AT, she recommends starting with answering a bunch of questions. I found these here.
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Here they are:
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1. What do I want the purpose of my room or area to be?
Tricky, really. In the past it has merely been the place here things go to die. It's also the place here my son exercises on the recumbent bike, and lately I've been painting the ceiling planks for the bathroom.
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I set up our old kitchen table for spray painting.

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The area also stores furniture awaiting repair and scrapbook supplies.
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Honestly? I want the area to be a place here I can work on my scrapbooks and crafting/decorating projects for the house. Really.
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I know we need a place for the bike: but maybe this isn't it. There is the area over by the furnace which has the lat pull down machine and bench. If we got rid of that....and cleaned it out...
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There's a lat pull down machine in there. That stuff? Mostly my daughter's. No, she hasn't left home--she's eleven. It's going to be a bear to make her go through this stuff, but it's got to be done.
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We could move the bike over here. You know what else would be cool? A dvd player and a TV, or a place to set up audio cd's or an mp3 player--or something to help pass the time on the bike. Oh--and I'd love to replace the bike with a treadmill and free weights.
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Oh well.
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I feel like that's selfish. Maybe I'll talk to the family. It's hard to make truly functional plans for the basement. We need more light and more heat to truly make this area useable.
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2. What do I need in or near the room to serve that purpose?
Well, as I said...we need light.
and heat.
A table, a comfy office-type chair.
I need my supplies organized in various containers.
Drawers. I have lots.
In fact, I have everything I need (except the heat and light): I just need to utilize it better.
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3. What can I remove from the room?
punching bag
recumbent bike
broken furniture
unused furniture and decor items.
kids' boxes of artwork.
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4. What problems do I see with the room?
Storage needs change: and I haven't been keeping up. For example, though I am loathe to deal with the all of shelves, there's old school ork and stuff there I don't need to store. I need a place for the skates now on the floor, though.
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5. What organizational tools might solve those problems?
Again, I'm pretty sure I have all I need: I just have too much stuff in too small a space.
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6. What habits need to change to solve the organizational problems?
I need to stop waiting for my husband to fix the broken furniture and just chuck it immediately?
Um. No. I don't think that will work.
This is a tough question to answer because e don't really use this "room."
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7. What kind of a budget do I have to create the organized room of my dreams?
Easy--nothing.
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8. What kind of a timeline is necessary to organize the room?
The true deadline is however long it takes us to save up for an electrician to come and rewire and install increased amperage for the house as a whole. Include in that time frame the time it ill take to go through all the old art ork and school ork and decide what to keep and what to toss. I've no idea, really. Longer than a month anyway.
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9. What is my plan of action?
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Week 1:
Do the obvious.
1. List the punching bag for sale.
2. Clear out the area by the lat pull-down machine for a picture and list it for sale.
3. Decide whether the Rocking chair is repairable.
4. Decide whether to keep the upholstered platform rocker.
5. Decide wehther to insulate the wall over by the lat pull down machine this month (my husband has another vacation week coming up)
6. Put up hardware for curtains in the laundry room.
7. Talk to my husband about what needs to be done to finish the laundry area.
8. Put away items which really do have a home, like these on the bench.
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Week 2:
Purge.
1. Look through the shelves and get rid of anything obvious.
2. Start collecting items for homeschool conference sale.
3. Go through Emma's things with her--goal: to consolidate and clean out two storage boxes.
4. Go through the scrapbooking supplies and discard little used tools and items.
5. Go through the drawers in the pine dresser.
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Week 3:
Organize.
Hopefully, the punching bag and the lat pull don machine will be gone and I'll be able to move the bike. Then Ill be able to think about how I ant to arrange things down there.
Wow--can this really be done?
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Week 4: The home stretch.
Don't call me crazy but I would love, love, love to paint this pine wall white.
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I'll have a progress report for Week One next Friday.