Progress Report: Week 1

You may recall, March is the month for the big basement purge and shuffle.

There are three storage areas which we will be getting rid of. In order to find new homes for things, some very long-procrastinated purging projects have to be tackled. (I am not dealing with the third. That is in my husband's workshop and it's all his responsibility.)

First is this area. We need to clear out and remove these shelves in my son's new game room. Specifically, we need room for that second chair so Dad (or a friend) can play beside him.

These shelves: both the black ones and the ones on the wall in the corner need to come down to make room for a large cabinet being moved out of my husband's workshop (which is right behind this makeshift wall.)

We can move some of these items onto our shelves: but obviously we need some room, first!


So, this week, I started with the easy stuff: The boxes holding our old tax returns and accompanying paperwork!

Then I got to work on our mountain of memorabilia.

I spent an evening and made as thorough a timeline as I could--so I could remember what happened when.

Then, I set up hanging files to receive the stuff I wanted to keep.

I made tabs from index cards I had on hand:

(One file box is specifically for stuff related to school, the other is for general memorabilia)

I emptied this basket of memorabilia.

Don't be fooled--that took over two hours--all together! Paper is agony.

I did find the first ticket stubs from the first real "date" my husband and I went on.

I went through this plastic box full of artwork by my kids'. So many fabulous creations! So many decisions! Ugh. Agony in a box.

I emptied out all sorts of binders and notebooks holding homeschool work and put just a few pages from each subject into a folder for each grade. This is not all I went through and there is more to be done.

Yes, I colour coordinated their binders. My son's work was in orange binders or something with an orange spine, and my daughter's in blue/purple.

I removed some items from the black shelves and that made room for some of the stuff on the wall shelves in the corner. I took down one shelf.

I still haven't gone to the second hand bookstore. I dread watching someone go through my things and reject them.

I found an old turntable.

I had to open the box to check! But yes, carefully packed, there she is. I don't have that many record albums (and they have been stored in my mother's garage for so long they may not be playable) but I am not sure whether I should let this go. I hardly ever listen to any kind of music anymore--but that doesn't mean I don't want to! I don't know whether to keep it or not.

I took the boxes I had full of my old Nancy Drew books and put them on my daughter's bookshelf. If she hasn't even tried to read one by this time next year, I'll donate them. (I doubt they're worth trying to sell!) I collected every single one from 1 to 50. (I even have a few that pre-date the 70's era books I bought.)

So: to recap:

Area 1:

Area 2:

I am starting to hit a wall. My dining room table is still covered in photo boxes and I am emptying and sorting the homeschooling binders and notebooks on top of them. The kitchen table is home to my efforts to sort the memorabilia boxes and I'm folding laundry in the living room.

It's all getting to be a bit much. But it is going to get even worse before it starts to get any better. That's just the way these things go, isn't it?