Basement Fun

This past week there was a bit of unwanted excitement at the house when part of the basement flooded. Frank and I spent a yucky hour cleaning up with the wet vac and throwing damaged things away.

With things initially under control we had to figure out what happened to fix it. Because it was during a rain storm in Ann Arbor, our first thought was that maybe the city's storm sewers were having an issue but the city confirmed there was no issue. It turned out that our sewer line out to the street had a bit of a blockage due to roots which we paid to get it cleared out. Ah, the joys of owning an old house...

The basement flood brought to the forefront a larger issue, which is that I need to clean up and organize the basement. I have made it no secret on this blog that I have a problem with wanting to keep everything and having trouble letting things go. Living in a five bedroom house with a four car garage as a single woman has enabled me to keep way too much because I have a ridiculous amount of space for one person.

With Frank moving in (I can't believe it is less than two months until we get married!) it is high time that I stop using the basement as a general dumping ground. I need to purge a bunch of stuff and get the remainder organized so that Frank has room for storing his things as well. This past weekend I spent a good chunk of time in the basement doing just that. After spending a ridiculous amount of money on plastic storage tubs and removing 17 contractor bags of things I decided to get rid of (good-bye college electromagnetics class notes and faded red roman shades) the main room in the basement is starting to look presentable. 

Here is where things looked right after we had cleaned up from the flood:

Here is the same corner after my weekend of work:

I started by sorting things that I wanted to keep into plastic bins, labeling them with some painter's tape and a Sharpie. I have a bin for every phase of my life like high school, college, grad school, etc. and am limiting myself to one bin of memorabilia for each.

Below is another corner of the basement before I started purging:

Here is that same shelf as it is right now:

I thought that this would be a good spot to store my paint cans. I have most of my tools stored in the garage, but living in Michigan I can't store my paint out there otherwise it will freeze in the winter.

All in all, it wasn't the most fun weekend (I'd much rather be building or making something) but it was necessary and I made a significant dent into getting the basement in order.

Have you had any basement water issues? Do you have your basement well organized or is it more of a catch all like mine has been?