ORGANIZING THE BASEMENT

Hey! I haven't been around here for a little bit. Just busy around the house. One thing I've been doing is slowly reorganizing my storage cabinets in the basement.

Candles, anyone? I'm always picking up candles and holders at thrift stores and yard sales, "just in case"!

Pitchers and milk jugs, vases and planters, and stuff:

Coffee mugs and demitasse cups:

It took me a few weeks, off and on, because there are two double-wide cabinets and our unfinished basement is cold! So yesterday I decided to warm up at the thrift store and came home with a basket of goodies!

Oh, my! I just realized that I need to make a new blog header!

REDNESDAY

I want this . . .

but I have this . . .

I want this . . .

but I have this . . .

I want this . . .

 but I have this . . .

 

I suppose I could start by cleaning and organizing! Mister saw me making Valentines at my craft desk and said the desk itself looks like a holiday card! Not sure what that means, but it's a compliment nonetheless!

BASEMENT CLEANING

I've been busy as a beaver the past few days! I didn't even have time for VTT! Boo! Besides the regular driving Teen back and forth to school a few times each day, and housework, and appointments, I decided to start cleaning out my section of the basement.

Mister "owns" the basement, but he designated two cabinets for my stuff - crafts, seasonal items, china, etc. Plus he has these two long work tables that he lets me use to hold Ebay items, empty boxes, bubble wrap, and packing peanuts.
I'm sure you all know how the story goes: the boxes get thrown down there, not stacked neatly; the cats play with the peanuts; Teen takes her "life" down there when a summer t-storm approaches, thinking it will be a tornado and the house will get ripped apart - and leaves it all there; Teen also decides to go through Mister's record albums and leaves them strewn all over the place; and everything you don't know what to do with ends up down there "temporarily".

You should see the bags of trash that I brought upstairs!

But it is fun to find things that had been misplaced or forgotten. And now I can make a second trip to the thrift shop I went to last week.

Teen wants to go here tomorrow after school. You don't need to twist my arm! Can I use the lame excuse that I need to buy stuff to put on my blog? Yeh, that's the ticket!
Will report back in a few days!

"Spring" Cleaning

I always start my Spring Cleaning right after Christmas. When the tree comes down and the decorations are put away, everything gets cleaned out and reorganized. This proved very helpful six years ago when our house burned down one January day. That year I had done a more-thorough-than-usual cleaning, which was a relief when I had to remember everything in the house for the insurance company.

We were living in an approximately 200-year-old farmhouse and barn with seven acres. We heated the house exclusively with a wood stove. The fire chief said a spark must have been smoldering all day while we were out. It was a blessing in disguise, because the house needed more work than we could afford to do.

We now have a Cape Cod style "cottage", right in the exact same spot. The barn was untouched, much to my husbands relief - that's his playground! And my garden shed was saved, also - much to my relief!



Another bonus as a result of the fire is that my husband discovered he has a talent for building stone walls! The above photo shows my garden shed, a portion of one of the stone walls, and one of two sets of stairs he made using the foundations stones from the original house. Waste not, want not!