Knowing where to start with decluttering and organizing your basement will go a long way to actually starting the process. Even if the first step (taking inventory) is all you can face at the outset, do it. It will be one less thing to do, and you will find it easier than you know to continue and start decluttering your basement and organizing your basement storage for the future
Decluttering Your Basement: Where to Start
Keep the goal in mind – an organized basement, free of things you no longer need that are just taking up space and gathering dust, and organized so that it never gets into a mess again. Following are some tips on how to start organizing your basement.
Take Inventory of What’s There and Create an Action Plan
The very first thing you need to do is take inventory of all items in your basement. This may take a while if you have been putting off decluttering your basement for years – as many of us do.
If you have a lot of clutter (a lifetime’s worth for most of us – by the time we get to the point where we need to declutter the basement). It will help to start grouping items into different categories at this stage.
Categorize Your Items
Organizing the inventory into categories will help you start the process of organizing your basement. It will also help you decide what to keep and what to dispose of, sell, or give away. The sooner you start doing that, the better because decluttering your basement can be a long, arduous process.
Do it in stages. Start with simple categories such as ‘to keep’, and ‘to throw out’. Later, when you go through the items in each category, you can create more -sub-categories. Categorize the ‘to keep’ items’ by criteria that will help you find the things you need when you need them in the future, and the ‘to throw out’ pile into ‘to donate’ or ‘trash’.
Choose the Storage Solutions and Shelving Units You Want
Once you have categorized the inventory, and in the process decided what you want to keep, you can start to think ahead on how to store it so that you don’t end up having to declutter your basement again in a few years. Think about storage solutions that will help you keep the basement organized, clean and clutter-free in the future. Some useful basement storage ideas include packing small items into clear plastic bins, labeling them, and using basement shelving units to make the most of the space you have in your basement.
Think Vertically
You can open up a lot of space with floor-to-ceiling shelving. Plenty of vertical shelving will allow you to organize items for a second whittled-down inventory and categorization while allowing you to declutter your basement.
Organizing your shelves for storage in your basement will also make it easier to clean and dust as you go along, and ensure you maintain enough floor space.
Sort Through What You Need and What You Don’t
Once you have organized items and boxes on the shelves, you are ready to go through what you really need and what you don’t. This may be the second time you do this, but you can be sure you will identify more things you really don’t need at this stage. You are bound to have old computers and electronics that are no longer useful.
Get Rid of “Just in Case” Items
This one can be very hard. But if you are short of space or feel weighed down by all the things you still have, it’s a good idea to take a deep breath and get rid of at least some of those ‘just-in-case’ items. If you can’t decide, a good idea would be to label them as ‘just in case’ for the next round of decluttering.
Dealing With the Junk, Garbage, and Stuff You No Longer Need
Decluttering your basement is one thing, but what do you do with all the stuff you have finally decided to throw out? Use Junk Boss’ junk removal service to deal with it. Basement junk removal services will make the process of clearing out your basement far easier and leave you to concentrate on more important organizing and cleaning tasks.