Basement Rearranging in Progress

We were finally at the point in the basement where we could start moving furniture around. Of course it’s a pain - there’s a lot of shifting around that has to be done, loading and unloading shelving units, moving things out of the way to make room for the new stuff. Some of the pieces (like the red media cabinet) are too heavy for one person to do alone on uneven cement floors. We still have trash to go out (we missed yet another trash/recycling pickup to snow!) and things to give away/donate, but we didn’t want to delay moving forward because of a few bags and boxes.

As a refresher, here’s the layout of the basement before (not including loose stuff):

And here’s a layout of where we wanted everything to go:

Except once I started I realized a lot of things won’t work - like the cube shelf being moved to the middle. Moving the entryway to the laundry area to the left side put us too close to the furnace and hot water heater. I didn’t realize it in my mind or in the layout how close we were. And with the cube shelf moved, I realized how open and exposed the furnace and hot water heater is - not ideal with a rambunctious toddler. So after unloading everything off and moving it over, we had to move it back and put everything back. It felt like such a huge waste of time, but then again we really had to see it to understand why it didn’t work.

Then there was the red couch - the space is so narrow, it can't float in the middle of the room. It has to be against the dividing "wall." And the bookshelf  can't go next to the gas meter as a divider to "block" the sump pump because the gas line in the ceiling is in the way. The bookshelf is so tall it can only fit between the rafters where there are no pipes. So we have to find a new home for it.

I also realized that the shelves that hold tubs are narrower than I imagined in my (not-to-scale) drawing. So I was able to do 3 across instead of just 2 behind the couch.

So here’s a revised version of the new layout:

In this new layout the entryway to the utility part of the basement can be easily blocked off with a baby gate. And while there are still "danger zones" we'll need to address on the front side, they are smaller and easier to tackle. I’d also like to get another set of shelves to put all our cube shelf items on and put it in the laundry area behind the cube shelf. Then the cube shelf can be used for prettier/safer things than laundry detergent and wood floor cleaner and paper towels.