To anyone else: a basement is a basement. It's dark, dingy, and drab. It's where the cobwebs go to grow and the dust bunnies jump as if in a garden of plush greens.
Well, my basement is the same. It's NOTHING special and it's all of the above aforementioned. It's where we store things; anything from extra garments, shoes, handbags, toys, ski gear, painting supplies, crafting supplies, the vacuum and carpet shampooer, a pool table that is currently being used for more storage and an extra queen sized bed that we'd love to have guests sleep in but the remainder of the basement makes us too ashamed to even show them that we have a basement at all. Most importantly, it's where I do the laundry.
It may be my obsessive compulsive behavior acting out again, I do my very best to keep it at bay, however; like the bathroom; I don't see ANY sense in trying to take a shower or clean yourself when the surrounding area is filth. The moment you step foot on the bathmat set outside the tub, you feel like jumping right back in right? The same goes with the laundry. I've literally been avoiding EVER possible instance when I must step foot to the basement and upon retrieving the laundry from the dryer, I quickly scramble upstairs to do the folding as to not get any of my laundered clothes dirty again. (I know! Sounds crazy right? Well, if the shoe fits...and I've ALWAYS been fond of shoes:))
I look at the basement as what it is: its the foundation to this (happy) home. It's the building blocks that holds the rest of the structure (that I work so diligently on maintaining). It shouldn't go without being noted.
So, with NO money at all and no plan to boot...
Well...actually I just went downstairs to retrieve the laundry and started sweeping while I was waiting for the buzzer on the dryer to sound. Sweeping led to dusting which led to cobweb removing and rearranging of almost anything on the floor to get to the dust bunnies which led to moving more things around which led to about an hour of me downstairs (the longest I've ever been down there, especially by myself) yelling to the kids, "I'm downstairs!" In unison I hear, "Where?!" I scream again, "I'm downstairs." I hear the elephant stampede down the first flight of stairs, then the second flight right above my head. Then I see their faces peering through the open door at the top of the last flight, bending down to see me. My son says, "Mom? Why are you down here?," when he really wants to say, "What the hell are you doing down there and most importantly why are you alone?" It's quite terrifying and they were as surprised as I was.
I only got to roughly 1/16 of the entire space that needs a good overhaul but I'm satisfied with the progress thus far (and even more satisfied that I did it all with things lying about the basement:)
bLaH right?!?! Now you know why I've NEVER been a fan of doing the laundry. I simply have NO inspiration, no motivation, and nothing pretty to look at while I'm laundering the loads.
And?..
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Well, my basement is the same. It's NOTHING special and it's all of the above aforementioned. It's where we store things; anything from extra garments, shoes, handbags, toys, ski gear, painting supplies, crafting supplies, the vacuum and carpet shampooer, a pool table that is currently being used for more storage and an extra queen sized bed that we'd love to have guests sleep in but the remainder of the basement makes us too ashamed to even show them that we have a basement at all. Most importantly, it's where I do the laundry.
It may be my obsessive compulsive behavior acting out again, I do my very best to keep it at bay, however; like the bathroom; I don't see ANY sense in trying to take a shower or clean yourself when the surrounding area is filth. The moment you step foot on the bathmat set outside the tub, you feel like jumping right back in right? The same goes with the laundry. I've literally been avoiding EVER possible instance when I must step foot to the basement and upon retrieving the laundry from the dryer, I quickly scramble upstairs to do the folding as to not get any of my laundered clothes dirty again. (I know! Sounds crazy right? Well, if the shoe fits...and I've ALWAYS been fond of shoes:))
I look at the basement as what it is: its the foundation to this (happy) home. It's the building blocks that holds the rest of the structure (that I work so diligently on maintaining). It shouldn't go without being noted.
So, with NO money at all and no plan to boot...
Well...actually I just went downstairs to retrieve the laundry and started sweeping while I was waiting for the buzzer on the dryer to sound. Sweeping led to dusting which led to cobweb removing and rearranging of almost anything on the floor to get to the dust bunnies which led to moving more things around which led to about an hour of me downstairs (the longest I've ever been down there, especially by myself) yelling to the kids, "I'm downstairs!" In unison I hear, "Where?!" I scream again, "I'm downstairs." I hear the elephant stampede down the first flight of stairs, then the second flight right above my head. Then I see their faces peering through the open door at the top of the last flight, bending down to see me. My son says, "Mom? Why are you down here?," when he really wants to say, "What the hell are you doing down there and most importantly why are you alone?" It's quite terrifying and they were as surprised as I was.
I only got to roughly 1/16 of the entire space that needs a good overhaul but I'm satisfied with the progress thus far (and even more satisfied that I did it all with things lying about the basement:)
bLaH right?!?! Now you know why I've NEVER been a fan of doing the laundry. I simply have NO inspiration, no motivation, and nothing pretty to look at while I'm laundering the loads.
And?..
.JPG)
I used some old closet doors to partition off the water heater and furnace and threw some old curtains up behind the units to hide all the mechanical features and the cinder block walls framing the atmosphere. I pulled in an older metal shelf that wasn't being used for anything in particular, gave it a good scrub and placed all my laundering necessities neatly upon it. I then took an old dividing screen that has seen better days. It's so old that the only thing remaining was the actual frame. I used $1 wrapping paper I had left over from a previous project and I simply taped it into place. I will most likely find some fabric to affix into place at a later time but for the moment, this is what I had and it works fine.
Pretty proud of the project. It makes doing laundry much nicer to attempt and it certainly makes me want to get busy on the rest of the area. It's inspiration to a rather dark and drab basement and until there are actual walls or flooring (aside from concrete), the used up dividers, drapes and throw rugs are barely breaking any budget for this basement brush-up.
My laundry room is like life: I'm continuously sorting it out (one load at a time).
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