Organize Your Basement Before you Remodel Professional ...

August 14th, 2012

At one time, basements were the last frontier with regard to sprucing up a home. They were often damp, gray and only used to do laundry and store things that couldn?t possibly fit in your living space.

Nowadays, basements are often the focal point of a family?s living space. Newer homes are built with the intention that at least some portion of the basement will be used for a living, play or work area, but it?s often up to the homeowner to make it that way. If you find yourself in the position of wanting to refinish your basement, you must first organize what?s down there before bringing in a remodeler to do the job.

Categorize

The first step in any organizing project is sorting. That means looking at everything in your basement and putting it into a category. Depending on the amount of clutter in your basement, this could be an all day event, so engage the help of all family members.

Make sure you have big trash bags, empty boxes or plastic storage bins on hand to help you move things out of the basement. If you need to create some space to work, start with the biggest items first. For instance, you may have to make a decision about old furniture, exercise equipment, big tables, etc. Are you going to use them, donate them or sell them at a yard sale?

My rule of thumb for any cleaning-out project is to only keep what you use. If you?re not using it, someone else can. Take these big items and move them either outside or into the garage. Then continue to sort through all your other items, creating categories and purging as you go.

Don?t take too long on one item. If it?s obviously trash, then throw it out. If you have to think about it, put it into a category and move on. If there is paperwork in the basement, don?t get bogged down with reading every piece of paper. Put papers in their own category and go through them in detail at another time. The goal with the first step is to significantly organize, clear out trash and create space.

After moving out large items, clear out anything you have at the center of the basement floor. Next, sort through everything you have stored against the walls. To keep focused, pick a starting point and move clockwise around the room.

Typical categories of items found in basements include toys, laundry products, dry food, holiday decorations, tools, paint, big game tables, arts and craft supplies, memorabilia and old furniture. Everyone?s categories will differ, but make sure you label the box or area you are sorting into, so you don?t mix them up and have to redo the sorting. This is also helpful if several people are working together. What looks like a pile of toys to one person might actually be a donation pile.

When sorting, there are certain no-brainers you can throw out, such as expired food, games and toys that are broken or have missing pieces, broken furniture and anything that is moldy. Most people throw away more than half of the stuff they?ve been saving. It?s like the basement was a holding zone and these items were given one more chance to make it, but didn?t.

Purge

After you?ve sorted everything, it?s time to purge. That means remove everything from the basement that won?t belong in a newly-refinished basement.

One couple who refinished their basement said they could easily determine that everything they had stored down there was trash, so they simply rented a dumpster and that was the end of their organizing. If this is your situation, you can rent a small dumpster or 10-yard container which holds about three tons of trash from a place such as Accurate Recycling for about $375 a week. If you go over the tonnage, there is a $78 per ton charge.

Another alternative to getting rid of a lot of junk quickly is to try a junk hauler. My favorite is www.phillyjunk.com. These companies will pick up unwanted items and sort through them to donate what is usable and trash the rest for a fee. To calculate how much this will cost, first put all items in one spot and measure the cubic feet. Then go to the company?s website and calculate your charge. A full truck is about 400 cubic feet and will cost about $500-600.

This is a good option if you want to get rid of everything quickly or you can?t physically move all disposable items yourself.

?Where to purge:

For most of us, it?s not that simple. Trash and donations can also be broken down into categories. Here are some suggestions for disposing unwanted items:

Clothing and linens: Find a drop-off point in your area for Goodwill, St. Vincent DePaul Society, Leukemia Society or any charity. These usually look like dumpsters permanently placed in busy parking lots.

Arts and crafts materials: Donate to a retirement home, senior center, church, children?s hospital or school.

Big household items or furniture: Find a thrift store or consignment shop that offers pick-up.

Old paint cans: Let latex paint dry up and harden first before you put it in the trash. Speed up the drying process with Waste Paint Hardener?.

Broken or outdated electronics: Contact your municipality?s solid waste authority for places to drop off these items. Some even hold drop-off events a couple of times a year. Select Goodwill locations will also recycle these items.

Re-arrange

After you have purged all unwanted items, take a step back and look at what remains. It?s time to rearrange. Is there any category of items elsewhere in the house? For instance, tools and paint may move to the garage, holiday decorations to the attic and toys to bedrooms. Move those items and remember to keep like things together. Only keep things in the basement that will serve the new function of the room.

Temporary Storage

You?ll need to temporarily store items while refinishing takes place. I recommend plastic storage bins with lids that seal because they keep everything dry and dust-free and are easy to label. If you have a storage area built into your basement, you may be able to keep bins there and let the construction crew work around them.

If this is not possible, you may have to store these bins in a spare bedroom, attic or garage. Be careful not to put anything in the attic that will be damaged by extreme temperatures.

If your house is completely full, your last option is to rent a portable on demand storage (PODS^?) container which will cost approximately $350 per month. This is a walk-in container, and although it?s not the most attractive thing to have in your yard, it will prevent basement items from cluttering up your whole house.

Once you have cleared and categorized your basement, you?re ready to start planning your new room. You can use the same process if you are remodeling a kitchen or really any room in your house.

Filed under Home Organizing, Organizing | Comment (0)

Source: http://www.spacetospare.com/?p=424

icam patrice o neal. osteopathy osteopathy diphtheria diphtheria del rio