Basement Space Shuffle

Hello Friends,

It all started with this laundry basket at the foot of the stairs.  For years, we have been "making missing baskets" with balled up towels, cloth napkins, dish towels etc.  A resulting pile of laundry inevitably followed that one either picked up or walked on/over.  You can guess which.

There were other issues in this basement of ours.  Namely a weird floor plan and a lot of clutter.  Notice the internal vacuum hose hanging up?  The broom and mop are hidden just around that corner.  None of this cleaning equipment is easy to access.

This old kitchen cabinet is perfect for folding laundry and doing small projects, but the grey pegboard hanging above has been unusable space.

Add to this issue is the challenge of reaching the outlet for the internal vacuum!  You can guess how often I climbed on the cabinet to plug in the hose...like never.








This view from where the counter sits, shows a hanging coat rack.

Notice all the empty hangers?  I was able to fit ALL of my coats in my revamped walk-in closet in the bedroom!   I kept the ones that brought me JOY and donated the rest.  These left are my husband's and I can't recall the last time he wore a coat, so they went in a box to be sorted.

 And what is that lurking under the coats?

A lot of dusty old shoes that were also inaccessible.  Who knew we had so many old shoes?

I wanted to create more space in the basement as well as put all the cleaning supplies in one area utilizing the pegboard.  I also wanted to better use this cubby in the stairwell.

First I removed all those ugly plastic shoe racks and sorted out the shoes.  I tried this first, but the shoe cubby didn't quite fit in the space.

Looking around the basement some more, I located the original shelves and luckily the shelf brackets were still in place (13 years later).  Some would call this a miracle!   I was able to make a quick trip to the hardware store to get a small package of shelf holders and pegboard hooks and voila!

So much better.

Then I tackled moving the old kitchen cabinet to it's new location, underneath the coat rack bar.

The end of that cabinet needs some painting

The snowshoes could be hung a bit lower

These little details can make a big difference in the JOY factor. I'm looking forward to finishing up these small touches.

I did remove this equipment from another era.

Did we really have phones that hung on the wall?

Next up, tackling the pegboard wall.  First I removed this little white rack and donated it.  It came with the house and never worked very well.

 But evidently the last time I painted, I'd painted AROUND it...lazy, I guess?

Then it was trial and error until I found the right paint color.  Geez, you'd think I'd have my paint colors a little more organized!

3 times the charm!

It was so satisfying to hang up all the cleaning equipment on this pegboard!  I moved the bucket and wastebasket here too.  Now everything is handily in one place.

And now with the little help from a step ladder, I can now easily reach the vacuum attachment. Dustbunnies beware!

 The best part of this shuffle is that it only took a few hours, including the run to the hardware store and painting the pegboard error.

When the keeping and sorting is figured out first, the organization goes smoothly and the real fun begins.  Now to enjoy this new space.

Is there anything you'd love to change in your basement?

What's holding you back?