DIY and major messes Part 1

The Incredible GROWING mess starts with a mess I made that refuses to shrink. This major mess going on is completely my fault. Shortly after New Years I decided to gut the playroom, rearrange, redo, clean out etc. As a result I piled everything we took out of the playroom in the middle of the basement floor. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of that mess before I cleaned it up but trust me you could not walk through it safely. The Playroom turned out great

Main view

The Built Ins - notice my computers are there (though I am in the family room right now ha ha)

The girls desks and computers near the windows...

The new Redneck Couch

The TV etc. that the Redneck couch faces

One of the bookshelves that got moved (actualy in the upstairs hall just outside the playroom)

My next step was to tackle the girls rooms and their clothes. You see having two girls 5 years apart means I have a lot of clothes to save for Hailey..they have taken up many shelves in our basement - tub after tub of shoes and clothes - I went through them and made them a new home in the empty trundle of Hailey's bed, this freed up a lot of storage space downstairs, so then I decided I better gut the girls closets and that just added to my mountain in the basement...But the girls rooms look great and they got a few of the toys removed from the playroom transplanted in their rooms

Laurens American Girl Tree House

Lauren's shelves full of books and doll stuff, oh and Phoenix the fish!

Hailey got my old doll cradle in her room

Along with another displaced bookshelf

Some of her American Girl Stuff

And the new CD player she had to have for Christmas

After that I was tasked with cleaning out the unfinished part of our basement, making room for new stuff to be stored. This included clearing a VERY messy floor, emptying tubs and deciding what stays and what goes, plugging in the Treadmil and pretending as though we may actually use it. This part of the basement rarely stays clean for long because it becomes the dumping ground for everything...however after this HUGE clean out I have freed up a lot of space and intend to keep it that way (for a while anyway)

Holiday stuff on the left, crafty cabinets in the center and all things that must be kept forever on the right hand side (notice one whole shelf is empty!).

Giant Cat in the hat. He is Lauren's - I HAD to have him when I was pregnant with her and now I find myself wondering what the heck am I gonna do with him?

The other side of the unfinished part...full of boxes, summer stuff, fans, paint and more (again 1 whole empty shelf and a parially empty one too)

But the Main part of the basement looks pretty good now. The wrapping paper is off the pool table, the gifts are gone from the air hockey table and some of it has been set up and ready for play time too

SO, in order to accomplish all the beauty you have seen above I had to go through the mountain I plopped on the basement floor from the playroom and the girls room, I had to clean out tubs, and floor space in the unfinished part and had to decide what stays and what goes. In doing this, the only way I knew how was to just kept throwing stuff in the spare room, kindly referred to as Grandma Mary's Room ...YEP- this is where I am shoving all the stuff I don't want to keep as I go through closets, shelves, tubs etc. I am now referring Mary's rom as "Mount Dumpall" you can't even tell there is a bed, television, quilt rack and nightstand in this room ..

So now I get to empty this very scary bedroom and decide for sure what goes and what stays, who gets what (good will, ebay, garage sale, consignment who knows...) Are you coming to help?

In the meantime - I have a lot of STUFF to do so....hopefully the end result Will be worth it. OH - and we can't forget the trash pile we lugged up the stairs and out to the curb tonight (sorry mother earth)


Still Coming:
DIY and major messes part 2
You know who you are
Lost and Found