Have you heard of the One Room Challenge?? It's the decorating sensation that's swept the Internet. Various design bloggers are chosen to make over one room in their house in a short amount of time with access to beautiful sponsored products. It's a huge deal. Well guess what?! My basement makeover is nothing like that.
So here's what happened. I had a mason jar, that mason jar needed to be put away so I went down to the basement to put it on my mason jar shelf. There was no room on the shelf so what you see in the above photo happened. If you don't understand how putting a mason jar away could lead to this kind of mayhem, I repeat - there was NO room on the mason jar shelf.
I'm sure you understand now.
Everything got pulled out, moved, screamed at and kicked until there was no coming back from it. So I went upstairs, made my dinner and pretended none of the previous hour had happened.
If a news crew showed up the neighbours would say, "No, nothing unusual, she mainly keeps to herself. I did see her fling a 6' tall gold sex doll out of her front door the other night. That seemed a bit odd."
They aren't sex dolls by the way. They're life sized gold mannequins which I use exactly once a year when I drag them up from the basement to put them on either side of my living room entrance on Oscar night.
As one does.
Every night for the past couple of weeks I've been going into my Alcatraz of a basement to sort things out. Anything I don't think is worth the space it takes up is brought up to the dining room. Which is now looking similar to my basement, yet somehow my basement doesn't look any better.
I put stuff away in the basement then a day later I'm moving it again, realizing there's a MUCH better spot for it just over here behind the 14 tubs of Halloween decorations.
This just goes on and on.
The whole project just about went sideways on me when I realized I didn't want to do this anymore. It's not horrible to undertake a project that you can see is progressing nicely. Or just progressing. My basement on the other hand just kept getting worse and worse.
I bought storage bins and the basement got worse. I bought parts organizers and the basement got worse. I built a shelf and the basement got worse. It was like when you try to trim your own bangs.
But I think last night I may have reached the peak of the shit storm and am now coming out on the other side.
Still covered in shit you understand, but at least the storm is tracking north.
That's an after photo you see above. It's not maybe recognizable as an after photo so I felt the need to point that out.
My workbench on the other hand looks GREAT.
Everything is organized on the pegboard with 2 new parts drawers lined up side by side. Everything is within easy reach. That was 24 hours ago.
This is it now. You see, I started to clean up the other side of the basement which led to this. I told you. One step forward, two steps back into a tourists-only Mexican Porta Potty.
I should have just thrown out the mason jar. We all know that would have been the most mental health friendly thing to do.
All I want is a basement that holds my very large supply of hobby materials and tools. And I want to be able to access them and put them away without the fear of someone finding me a month later surrounded by an avalanche of plastic pots and sex dolls. I mean mannequins.
Nope. It's not going to be beautiful or inspire you to Pin it or even want to copy it. In fact if you're especially sensitive to messy spaces it'll probably still require you take a pill and have a rest after looking at it. The walls are rubble, the floors are cement and the ceiling is made up of 10% wood, 10% hazardous looking electrical wires and 80% dead bugs. That's not going to change.
I am not in the One Room Challenge. I am One Room Challenged. And I've made peace with that. The only real problem is, I thought it was my living room that was the challenge.
What I'm Eating
I buy most of my meat from either my farmer friend Murray (Murray's Butcher Shoppe) or my local feed store because the owners have cattle. But once in a while if I'm at Costco I'll buy one of their tenderloin roasts and cut it into steaks at home.
Sometimes I buy the denuded roast (has all the guck and silver skin removed) and sometimes I buy the already trimmed ones.
Either way buying a whole roast (whether it's a strip loin, tenderloin or whatever .. it's a much cheaper way to eat steak than buying individual steaks.
If you missed it earlier this week, I've been growing mung bean sprouts. Last week I used them to make a quick dinner with rice, marinated tofu, sprouts and my homemade spicy peanut sauce.
If you have a store bought peanut sauce you like just use that!
I figured you'd want the spicy peanut sauce recipe.
I make a batch of these every few months and then just stick them in the freezer. To cook them you just fry them in a pan for a few minutes then steam them. Easy delicious dinner.
I FOUND AN APPLE IN MY CRISPER! Not just any apple, an apple from my tree. I thought I'd eaten all of my apples, but no. So I'm going to make an easy curried chicken salad with it this week. The jury is still out on whether I'll eat it on a lettuce leaf or two huge toasted hunks of bread, golden brown and dripping with butter. Actually - the jury has reached a verdict.
I hope the rest of your weekend is good. It's Sunday! Stay in your pajamas, make a roast and then come on over and help me clean out my basement.
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Oh, I know this feeling. I have it every time I go to my rental storage units. Yes, I now have two after swearing I would never have more than a single unit, following the three months it took me to clear out two huge units I had back in Missouri that had held my whole life for about five years where it had moldered in the humidity, heat and cold, then a full week two years ago to clear out three I had in Arizona, accomplished finally by turning the keys over to a total stranger I met while waiting to pay for lunch in a restaurant. Now, when it isn't too cold, too hot, too windy, raining, snowing or otherwise disagreeable I drive up there and stir around in these units, sometimes finding a few things I can drop off at a lucky thrift store on the way home. They never look any better. Well, sometimes somewhat better organized until I need something on the bottom in the far right corner. I think it is keeping me fit. Physically if not mentally. Possibly.
Oh boy - you have to get rid of those units! At least one of them? I mean, unless you live in them, then by all means, keep them both. You'll feel so much better when you ditch one of them! By the way, is there anything good in them? Would I like it? And could it all fit into my basement?? ~ karen!
I saw a couple of silkscreens. What did you make? Cards, dish towels, napkins, gift wrapping?
Yup. LOL! No, just dish towels, some re-useable shopping bags, tee shirts ... That's part of why I wanted to clean the basement up. So when I want to screen print it's as easy as pulling out my DIY screen printing machine and paint from the screen printing shelf and doing it. No searching or moving things around, clearing off the workbench etc. etc.! I'm SO excited to print something when this basement is done! ~ karen
Oh, Honey... 🤷🏼♂️
I know. That's not the worst of it. The worst part is ... I like cleaning the basement. ~ karen!
Oh, Karen...you are so lucky to have a basement! I remember having a basement in Pennsylvania. I didn't appreciate it.
I didn't appreciate the multiple car garage either....
I now live near the beach. The water table is so high that I can't have a basement. Don't have a garage either.
The third bedroom is my "basement". Funny...all "basements" look alike. Hate to tell you. ..it's always going to look like that. It's what all basements look like. It's the law.
Well lady call the bond office because I plan on breaking the law then! 🤣~ karen!
I envy you your basement. I need a basement so I can move things from my quilt room into the basement so I can actually walk around in my quilt room. Sigh. My goal this year is to do to that room what you're doing to your basement but without the whole getting rid of things part because I cannot get rid of fabric, or thread, or sewing machines. I also have a mason jar shelf that is over filled. My daugher says I'm a hoarder, but I prefer to think of myself as a historian.
I love how you make a “quick” meal by growing your own bean sprouts! Hahaha! I also love the creative genius that lives in your basement. Leave her be!
LOL!! Yes, I never even thought of the fact that I had to grow the bean sprouts for my quick meal. Still - quick by my standards. It took me months to grow the potatoes I ate tonight! ~ karen
Those nicely organized plastic boxes on your workshop table need to have the drawers labelled. A1, A2, A3, etc. Enter into a spreadsheet on your computer. Print out the lists and put in one of your three ring binders.
Before you give me an atta girl for being so efficient, I’ll admit that it is DH that does this. When I want something, I look at his printouts.
LOL. Well, I'm labelling the drawers but that's as far as I'll go. I just like using my labeller WAY more than I like making spreadsheets. ~ karen!
Holy Hannah! That would give me hives. And a twitch.
Good luck. But remember, sometimes it's sort of like moving deck chairs around on The Titanic.
That basement might just be sunk. Luckily you have the rest of your beautiful house in which to breathe easily.
A beautiful metaphor for the basement of a creative mind.
I feel you. I put away my Christmas decorations in my basement and I didn’t emerge for 2 days and when I did, I had 6 bags for the charity shop and 6 for the trash and I onlymade it through the Christmas stuff. The irony here is the whole time I kept repeating, “In the Christmas Pledge, Karen says if you don’t like it or you don’t use it, get rid of it.” 😬
I am convinced that if I had really deep shelves around the whole perimeter - like deep enough for plastic tubs - that it would solve my problem.
They would! That's why I built my shelves in the basement! Here's now ... https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/how-to-build-easy-storage-shelves/ ~ karen!
This happens to me all the time in my basement too. We're remodeling just about every room of our house so our basement is a catch-all of everything you can imagine and a few things you don't want to. It drives me insane! But I have a burning question. Did you finally get to put the mason jar away?
I did!!! I can't believe I completely forgot that portion of the story! I took everything off of a dirty 4' high metal shelving unit in the basement, then painted it white and stored the mason jars on it. :) ~ karen!
Karen, you are absolutely the best. Truly, other bloggers post a "messy room cleanup" that begins with a Martha Stewart-type area that looks like it has been attacked by one tiny spider for 10 minutes, and then morphs to a House Beautiful "after" spread. Your basement is REAL; and looks exactly like the cellar I grew up with; cinderblock/concrete walls, tiny windows, and floors that look like hazardous waste sites. It is hard to have light enough to find what you need, never mind clean/organize them. You rock.
Aren't the white chairs the same as in your dining room? Do you have spares?
Oh the cinderblock you see is the fancy part of the basement, lol. The rest is rubble. Which is filled with weird white dust that's constantly falling off and HUGE cracks and crevices for bugs and probably Komodo dragons to hide in. ~ karen!
I never have room on the mason jar shelf (which is probably a whole story in itself - I mean, I use one, but when I go to put it back its space has been taken...do they breed???)
Anyway...I have now discovered that that's what the top of the washer and dryer are for. I just have to remember to shift it to the machine not in use so it doesn't dance off the one in use. Got that?
They DO BREED!!! ~ karen!
How did you get into my basement!? Oh, wait; that’s not my basement. My basement looks just like this except my basement had some BIG, TALL, STRAPPING young men in it this summer who were charged with rebuilding the foundation beams for my house—yes, I bought an old house with screw jacks in the basement serving as foundation supports. Don’t ask me why I went through with the deal when the inspector told me I had to replace the screwjacks...anyway, back to the BIG, TALL, STRAPPING young men. They worked hard and long down there, and there was much jackhammering and sawing and hoisting and pounding. What there WASN’T was any sort of sheeting or covering or rearranging of STUFF so that concrete dust, wood dust, and all the other gross STUFF that was generated was kept off my precious STUFF. Now, whenever I touch or move something to get to something, there is an awful grinding/scraping/screeching of particulate matter that kind of brings to mind chewing sand. My husband thinks I’m going to help him clean and sort it all out some day so that our dear daughter, and only child, doesn’t inherit a pile of junk covered in concrete. But I have other plans...I remember the labor pains, the tweenage sass, the mid-teen rebellion, the eye-rolling/skipping school/dating of miserable jerks...I remember too that revenge is a dish best served cold...
... with concrete. ~ karen!
Wow! I can relate to that basement. You have to get that all sorted out before seed starting season. I look forward to seeing the end result of your labors. Carry on!
That's a lot of my motivation, lol! I need to be ready by March! ~ karen
OK. I am not feeling so inadequate about the way my basement looks right now. Or how it looked last week anyway. It is the place in my house where stuff goes to die - and I had decided over the Christmas break to just hire one of those companies that come and take away your junk and deal with it for once and for all.
Then the rain happened this weekend and I went downstairs to change the cat litter and found 3” of water across the entire floor!! God bless my furry girl, she waded through the water to use her litter box but she quite rightfully protested.
So, now that I have had the water removed, my furnace checked, the hot water heater repaired and huge fans roaring away down there for three days, my procrastinations about doing something about the stuff in the basement are over. Or, almost over - I need to settle with my insurance over any losses that I can identify of things that I actually value down there. Fortunately, nine tenths of the stuff I care about was already on shelving and escaped the water but there are a few things.
Then, let the clear out begin.
So, have you considered an exorcist? Because that basement is for sure haunted.
Your basement looks just like mine. Each year, I pretend to promise myself that "this winter" I will really clean it up. I know it's not going to happen, but I keep pretending.
The thing is, years ago I helped a friend organize her house, declutter it and whip it into shape. I had no problem making decisions when it came to her stuff - I could see right away that some items were suitable only for trash, and I even managed to convince her of the same.
It's only when it comes to my own hoard when I am completely paralyzed and unable to give up anything.