What do you KEEP in your basement, and HOW do you keep it there?

[KristenF]

I saw Cami's thread about basements and it got me thinking, as I'm gearing up to attack the insurmountable task of clearing the up-to-my-neck crap out of my 700sq-ft unfinished basement...


What do you store in your basement? (categories like kid's clothes, old toys, furniture, memoriabilia, holiday decorations, etc...)

How do you decide what to keep/what's your criteria?

What mechanisms do you use to store stuff? Shelves, rubbermaids, etc...

Is it your only storage, or do you keep things in the attic/off-site storage/other? (and what do you keep there, as I'm curious about what folks keep and what they toss)

TIA, everyone!

[Karri]

What's stored in our basement:
*holiday decor --all in labeled rubbermaid bins
*camping crap --on shelving, some of it in rubbermaid if necessary
*coolers
*strollers not in use
*extra interior paint --all in a cabinet in chris's "area"
*electronics that my husband can't seem to let go of :rolleyes: --on shelving
*crap that I can't fit in my kitchen cabinets (breadmaker, breakfast trays, fondue pot, some serving baskets/trays, cake keeper, extra vases, etc) --kept in the kitchen cabinets in the basement kitchen
* 2 boxes of photo frames that I've yet to go through since we moved here :heee: - they're shelved.
* card table & chairs

In our rec room area, we have all of our office crap in there, as well. We store all that crap on shelving, on the desk, in the filing cabinet or in the secretary.

I think that's all :scratch: I am not a huge packrat. I don't save outgrown kid's toys...they go to goodwill the moment the kids are done w/ them.
I have a small amt of outgrown kids clothes that are in 1 bin that I have to sort through. They're in the attic. The rest have all been purged as I went - I either give them to friends who can use them, sell them, or goodwill.

I have some other stuff in them tiny bit of attic space we have: our luggage and some of those plastic bureaus w/ extra linens in them. That's all, though. Like I said, I hate hanging onto things and then having to purge massive amounts. It would make me twitch. :lol:

[Cami]

The problem with basements is that it's just so nice to shove stuff down there and forget about it! We had TONS of crap in moving boxes that never got opened in the three years we lived in our last house. I went through all of it before we moved the last time. What's left is all very organized now.

We have:
seasonal stuff in moving boxes or plastic tubs
2 plastic tubs of kids' outgrown clothes that I want to save
3 boxes of mine and his childhood stuff/diaries/old books/etc
2 plastic tubs of old photo albums
box of CDs/DVDs/etc which should be thrown out
extra paint for all the rooms in the house
extra suitcases
a couple pieces of furniture

It's all in the storage area of our basement, all labeled nice and neatly. :) I so don't want to have to sort through a ton of crap ever again!

Oh, so the criteria/decisions from when I did go through everything: I was brutal. Old clothes... gone. Old paperwork... gone. Notes passed in grade school... gone. I kept only the truly meaningful things (and made those decisions for DH's stuff :giggle: ) and dumped anything that wasn't memorable or useful now. It felt SO GOOD to get rid of so much stuff. We had a yard sale and got the leftovers picked up by some charity.

And as for other storage: We kept stuff like bikes, golf clubs, anything for outside in our garage.

[Alyssa]

We had really simple built in shelves put in on either side of the 1/2 of our basement that is unfinished.

One side is all clothes that are out of season/waiting to fit. I'm purging clothes once Seamus grows out of them. Everything is in labled Rubbermaid bins. There is also unused baby stuff on that side that I'm keeping for my sister. I'm ditching stuff that she won't want. (Er, she's not even married yet.) We moved all Christmas stuff into the space over the garage so it opened up more space.)

(This is an older picture. But you can get the general idea.)
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4db27b3127cce9b965e08aaab00000026108AbsWLFk0YtR


The other side is misc. stuff. Some large stuff (old computer stuff, extra kitchen gear, air conditioners, etc.) is generally just placed there. We also have paint cans in one section now. I have a big box with gift bags in it, and next to that another box with misc. party supplies. I also have a bin with my old photo albums I have unused blankets in bins. (Again, old picture.)

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4db27b3127cce9b965e0aaaa900000026108AbsWLFk0YtR


What I don't have a picture of is a free-standing clothes rack that Joe keeps all his hockey stuff on/around. And we have another clothes rack that is built into the wall w/ a shelf on top - that has out of season jackets hanging and out of sesaon outdoor wear (boots, summery hats, etc.) on top.

We also have our filing cabinet in there to one side. On another side is the old cradle, and there is also baby gear stacked in there.

The middle of the unfinished basement is a giant train table. That has to go. We also have a pretty large roll of extra carpet. It's pushed to the side, but it's still there taking up space.

We keep saying we'll clean it out more when we move. :whistle:

[Lynn]

We keep bins full of:
Aaron's outgrown clothes (that I can't seem to part with :rolleyes: )
Camping gear
Dishes that don't fit in the cabinets (we have place settings for 16. like we ever use more than 6 at a time! :lol: )

Then we have two huge pantry style/armoire cabinets that house all of our china, gear that doesn't fit in the kitchen cabinets (crockpot, breadmachine,giant cast iron stuffs), dressy clothing, pillows/blankets and seasonal clothing

We also have boxes of what I call crap. Picture frames, candles and holders, linens not in season, etc. It's all stuff that I may use :airquote: someday :airquote: but probably not. I went through a bunch of stuff last summer and had a garage sale but I need to do it again. I want that stuff out of there.

We also have a section of the basement for tools, paint, supplies, etc.

I hate the basement! :lol:
Outgrown/non used baby stuff like strollers/high chair/baby bath tub, etc.

[Dennis]

The finished part of our basement is a playroom. We also have a ton of bookshelves for all of Mary's books. The unfinished part is a storage room and we have a lot of shelves similar to Alyssa's. It also has a workbench area with all the tools and such. We pretty much keep all our extra stuff down there.

[kalm]

No basement here. :blue: Our attic, however, holds holiday decorations in rubbermaid bins, clothes that are waiting for Brendan to grow into and Lilly stuff that I need to get rid of, some baby gear (not much anymore), old interior paint cans, bins of Scott's games and comic books. I really miss having a basement....but the thought of cleaning out the attic should we ever move gives me shivers enough!