And so it begins

When you're 34 weeks pregnant, the clutter starts to get to you. Ok, it gets to me on a regular basis, but I've got the time and a deadline and a list of things I'd like to get done.

It'll result in a cleaner, easier to clean, more organized, more fun house. Oh, yeah, and there will actually be room for, you know, the baby. And the visitors.

I'm a packrat. I'll admit it. I was raised with the mantra of you never know when you'll need it. So our house is stuffed to the gills with stuff that might be useful someday. Getting rid of stuff is important, I know. But I'm also focused on organizing what we do have, so that if I ever do need it, I can find it.

We live in a an old rowhouse. So not much storage, small rooms, small closets. The footprint is 20 feet wide by 40 feet deep. So about 1600 square feet of living space on the main and second floors. Our basement is the full size of the house, and is partially finished, and would be a great hangout for Sweetpea's toys (and her!) but it is full of stuff. We've saved every bit of her baby equipment, and that's a good thing as we'll put it to use. But there's just a jumble there.

The Washington Post recently did a Getting Organized series. Step one was to group like things together, zoning. So yuo'd then be able to go through all paperwork, or all books, or all kitchen stuff, or whatever it was. So we've made a first attempt at zoning. But with stuff scattered all over the house, it's time to dive in a bit, free up storage space, and then get into the hard attic work.

Here's a little tour of the basement. This is what you see when you come down the steps. There's a lot of baby stuff, plus toddler toys that just overwhelmed the living room, so have been place out of rotation. My overall goal is to end with this area cleared out for a playspace.

These next two are the back end of the basement. Washer/dryer, plus area for tools and household stuff (old paint, rages, etc). Organizing this space is a high priority, because it's so spread out. And because in 2002 I bought a workbench, which has never been put together. Since we have the storage, let's use it efficiently to clean up this space, which will free up room back here.

And this is the other side of the front part of the basement. Just boxes and piles of stuff. Some big stuff to get throw out. This area will take a long time to go through, and we may not get to it this goround. But eventually. Cause the funky 70s bar area could be a lot of fun, if we made it usable.

So, that's it for today. I called yesterday for bulk trash pickup, because the mattress you can see in the front of the above picture has been flooded twice. Time to throw out. I'll count it once it's gone.

My goals for this coming week:

• Sign up for freecycle to get rid of stuff (and I have to admit acquire stuff - a bookshelf or two would really help).
• Go through some obvious stuff in other areas of the house to cut down on clutter/trash and free up space
  
• get that workbench put together!