Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Basement
If you find that your basement is full of junk that you cannot even identify, plan a spring cleaning for your basement. Basements are damp, dank places with furnaces, sump pumps, and other necessary appliances, but they aren’t often designed in a useful way.
Begin by checking the lighting. Part of the reason that basements are great locations for horror movie scenes is that few of them have good lighting. If yours doesn’t, take down some lamps for the spring cleaning. It is does, then make sure the lightbulbs all work. Once you can see, spring cleaning becomes a more manageable task.
Take stock of what is in the basement. Decide if everything belongs in there. Would the snow shovel be better suited to the garage, for instance? Are you actually going to fix the tricycle that’s been sitting down there for four years? Begin by taking these items and removing them either to a new location in your home or to the trash or donation facility.
Once you have just what you want in the basement, think about the categories of items that you have. Perhaps you have some rarely-used tools that shouldn’t take up garage space. You may have old “memory” items waiting for scrapbooking. Perhaps you have clothes for your kids to grow into. Move all of the items around so that they are in rough piles based on what they are.
Next, spend some time determining the best way to store those items. Perhaps some items require a shelving unit. Others may need some type of hanging system. Still others will fit nicely in large plastic tubs without shelving. Get those items now and begin putting the basement in order. Add spring cleaning the basement to next year’s list, too, and the task will be much, much simpler!
