4 Tips for Decluttering Your Basement
Basements today have limitless potential. They can be used as an extension of your living area, a spacious playroom for the kids, or an entertainment area complete with a big screen, surround sound speakers and comfy couches. They can also become a breeding ground for clutter, if neglected, meaning that what could be a valuable extension of your home could go ultimately unused. Avoid this common issue, and be proactive about your clutter early on. Don’t know where to start? Try these four tips:
Divide and conquer.
If tackling your whole basement in one go seems too daunting, break the job up into mini-jobs. For instance, designate one day to sorting your clutter into three categories: keep, donate and discard; box up the donate and discard items the following day; spend a morning dusting, vacuuming and wiping down surfaces et cetera.
Empty your space before reorganizing.
If possible, completely empty your space before you begin to refill the “keep” items. This helps you from falling into the same organizational ruts as before. Try to donate and discard the largest items first, such as furniture.
Resist nostalgia.
Nostalgic attachment is perhaps the biggest inhibiting factor when decluttering. Without really meaning to, we form emotional attachments to our belongings, which makes it hard to get rid of them. Take pictures of sentimental items or take the time to find good homes for things you hold dear, like old baby clothes and toys, so that you feel better about getting rid of them.
Find a new spot for inevitable household clutter.
The fact remains that the things we have little daily use for tend to end up in the basement where they are out of sight and out of the way. The problem with this method is that when things are out of sight, we tend to forget about them completely. Designate a new area of your home to miscellaneous clutter, things that you intend to donate or discard, and make sure that place is visible so that you’ll remember to take care of it sooner rather than later
