Summer Project: Basement Organization

Our basement has been out. Of. Control. For the last year.  My basement really stresses me out because (a) it's a dank cave and (b) it's where we store our stuff.  So I feel like if we're not extremely careful to keep things boxed up and off the ground, we could find our things ruined.  We don't have a sump pump, but even if we did, I'd still keep our stuff of the ground.  We've just been kicked too many times.

Anyway, last summer Kyle built two sets of shelves to house some of our stuff that got booted to the basement once our upstairs was starting to come together.  If you don't remember that adventure, check it out here.  Kyle also built some other things throughout the winter for us in the basement, too.  He built a platform for our washer and dryer as well as two sets of similar shelves with only one level.  The problem is that although we have space for more shelves, the ceilings and walls have exposed pipes that we don't want to cover in case we need to get to them.  So our solution was to build another shelf that is one level and another three-leveled shelf as well as purchase some smaller shelves for our old coal room (food storage room!).  The best part is we still have plenty of shelf space for future items!  Kyle has sworn off building any more shelves for this basement.  

Here's our organized and stress-free basement:

Everything OFF the laundry table!  All of our paint is organized and in these cabinets above the table.  Would you believe that it's PACKED with paint?  Over the course of five years we've accumulated 36 different cans of paint, stain, etc.  WHAT?!  All of them are different and we might want to use for touch-ups, so I don't dare throw them out.

Shelf area.  Kyle feels like this looks like the warehouse on Indiana Jones.

Hung Audrey's hiking backpack and Kyle's golf clubs off the shelves.  Take up less space!

Eventually, all the boxes will look like this.  Waterproofed and clearly labeled!

Space for us to start FOOD STORAGE!  I'm so happy!

This has cleared out our linen closet shelves!  Yay!

Kyle insisted on pegboard, and I thought it was stupid to waste the space when we could put in more shelves.  However, we still have plenty of space and it IS a lot easier to locate some of our more-used tools this way!

Extra shelf being used as a table right now.  I'm okay with that!