Rubbermaid - Adventures in Organization

2 posts categorized "Moving"

Oct
02

Please Help My Mom Get Her Basement Organized!

Posted by Lauren Spahr | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

The last time I went home to Virginia, my mom invited me to join her in the basement.

She led me to a corner that had a ton of decorative flowerpots, home decor items, and party serving dishes. Then she said to me,"Take a look if you want anything...I don't need all this stuff. I don't have any more room in the house for it."

Let's back up. In many ways, I am very similar to my mother. My mom is really organized - see an example of her closet on the right that she and my stepfather designed and built. They combed through magazines to find the perfect combination, then he built it from scratch in his workshop. She selected neat organizers that matched from Tuesday morning. Overall, it is quite impressive.

The Basement Problem

However, while I am a "purger" and like to get rid of anything in my home I don't actively use (except all my art supplies!!), my mom is more of a "keeper". Her basement has become a collection place for so many items from their combined households when they got married. The issue is that they don't have room in the house to put the decorations, extra chairs, etc. anymore - see below:

The decor area:

The graveyard of rocking chairs and dining room chairs from combined households:

The overflow area for household supplies that she does not use everyday (this needs to stay in the basement but I want to organize it better for them):

My mom is feeling a bit stressed from the clutter in the basement. She feels guilty that she bought some things for use in the house, but ran out of room. Many of the decorative items are not returnable.

I am thinking a yard sale might be best to sell a lot of the things they don't need, and then they could do something fun and spontaneous with the money. That could allow her to feel like the purchases were not a waste.

Progress Thus Far:

I mailed her some tags that I bought at Target to start tagging things that she knows she doesn't need, things she wants to keep, and things she is not sure about. When I go home over Thanksgiving, we are going to go through it all together. I will likely return in the Spring to help them have the yard sale.

Help me!

I would love your help. Do you think the process is right so far? Any tips or pointers for the process, or do you have any advice on having a yard sale? This is my first time, so welcome your expert input! I look forward to keeping you updated on the progress!

Jul
27

Moving Advice

Posted by Erin Gentry | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

I HATE moving. And I have had to do it a lot lately with almost no end in sight. Plus, it is not just me moving in and out of apartments, but my parents moving to different states. Needless to say I am amazed that I am able to find any of my things any more.

So this weekend was another glorious moving weekend. I had to officially move out of my college apartment in Athens. Thankfully, I have been living in Charlotte for the past two months and have been slowly moving things from Athens to Charlotte. It's a lot easier when you have two months to decide what you want to keep and more than one weekend to transfer all your stuff! But I finally had to move everything out and clean.

So, here are a few tips I have learned about moving.

1. Rubbermaid containers are great. If you are moving yourself, it is even better if you can have a bunch of smaller ones. Easier to carry and if you have limited trunk space like me (buying a coup when moving was not the smartest thing I have ever done) it's easy to slip them into extra space in your car.

2. If you have room, organize in piles. My roommate with the bedroom accross the hall from me had already moved out. His room and the hall became a staging ground with a pile for trash, things going in my car, and things I was storing in a friend's basement.

This is my trash pile.

This is my take with me pile.

3. Label, label, label. You might think you will remember where you put your flashlight or towels but if you do not unpack everything in a few days you might not remember. Try to pack like things together and label boxes/totes clearly.

For me, I bought a couple of large Rubbermaid containers to try to put all my little things that I would store into. That way I knew all my things would stay together in one place in my friend's basement. However, that meant everything was just being piled together. So I labled each tote that it was my stuff and kept a running list of what was going in the box on a piece of notebook paper. I taped the list to the inside of top of the lid. So when I need something and am searching in the basement for it, I can quickly check to see which tote it is in.

4. Do not be afraid to throw things away. If you have not used it recently (except for seasonal items then ask if you used it the last season), get rid of it. Most of the stuff that is clutter are inexpensive things that if you do decide in a month or two you need, it will not be too bad to go buy another one. You can justify the cost to yourself by thinking of the energy you saved packing, carrying, and unpacking it.

Here are some more moving tips that I have found: