This Week's Basement Update

The basement is moving along. The red media cabinet has been moved to its new “home”on the long wall. Right now we're debating which old TV should stay and which one will be recycled (small screen with a VCR or bigger screen?). All of the bagged trash and recycling is finally out. All that’s left are the loose/oversized items that they won’t pick up until the snow melts (no oversized pickup is available when our street is a narrow single lane road from all the snow). The computer part recycling is gone. The garage stuff is now in the garage. All of the clothing donation bags are gone. Most of the give-away stuff is gone (just a few more things to pass along).

We added a new shelving unit to hold all the cube shelf items - cleaners, paper towels, etc. where the red media cabinet used to be. This way they are out of the “living” half of the basement and we can use the cube shelf for toys and other things. The shelving placement is ideal - it's still easily accessible to adults when we need something, but the whole "entrance" to that half of the basement is easily blocked off with a baby gate.

Next on our list is to remove the ugly paint storage shelf next to the stairs. It was poorly built out of wonky scrap wood and a ton of 5 inch nails (why we hate 5 inch nails HERE, here, here). There’s really no way to glam it up for using it in a “living” area, so we’ll have to take it down. Unfortunately it was built into the stair wall joists (again with those 5 inch nails - UGH!), so it’s not something we can transfer to another part of the basement. While we can stack the paint cans under the stairs, we have to find a new home for all the small stuff - spray paint, turpenoid, wasp spray, etc. I want that stuff high up and WAY out of reach.

What’s left now:
Remove paint shelf next to stairs
Reorganize and move paint around under the stairs
Find a new home for the small paint shelf stuff
Put up the bookcase by the stairs and finally load it up
Cover up exposed electrical
Block utilities and other safety hazards from curious toddlers
Cozy up the “living area”