This week has been all about cleaning and organizing, so it’s only fair that I take this opportunity to own up to the most unclean, unorganized space in our house (perhaps ever in our whole lives). The horror lies behind this door, in my basement workshop:
Just like our first house, we have a separate entry basement that you access from a door in the back yard. Except in this house, I’ve avoided showing this space the entire 16 months that we’ve lived here. Yes, it has been kept completely off camera and video – which is almost unheard of for over-sharers like us. Why? Because I’m embarrassed to my core about its state. I’ve been meaning to tackle it for a while. But a while has turned into a while longer. So I’m finally forcing myself into action by showing it in all of its glory, er, gory. Feel free to play this video while I hide my face in my hands.
For those who can’t watch the video (or couldn’t take more than the first 15 seconds or so), here’s the mess you missed. Although for some reason it doesn’t look as bad in the pics. The video is the real deal. Haha. It still looks pretty bad though…
As I said on camera, I blame the whole thing on these pallets that the previous owners left in the yard and I dragged inside when making our living room console table last April. I guess the pallet scrap invited me to add other leftover wood to the pile, all awaiting some future time in which it’ll all be “taken care of.”
Well, it hasn’t been taken care of. And instead the mess in one corner gradually made me care less about keeping the rest of it clean. So the whole space has kind of deteriorated into one big cluttered, dirty, slobfest.
So here’s my vow to clean and organize the workshop. It won’t take a day, or even a week, but I’m vowing to make a plan, put it into action, and keep you guys posted. After all, it’s a pretty useful space for us – mainly as storage (tools, yard stuff, etc) and it also makes a great work space. But it hasn’t been serving either function very well with all of this junk in my way.
Here’s my rough plan of attack (feel free to tackle a garage, basement, or attic right along with me if you’d like):
- Pare down and organize my scrap pile: I like having spare wood around, but not this much. I’ve been trying to figure out a better solution than just throwing it away, but haven’t settled on one yet (a lot is too small to sell or donate according to the calls I’ve made – so maybe I’ll freecycle what I don’t think I’ll need for future projects).
- Take everything out and clean things from top to bottom: Part of the reason the floor and workbench are covered in a confetti of sawdust is that it’s hard to sweep around all of this stuff. I figure if I get everything out, I’ll have no excuse. Plus it makes the next step easier.
- Bring back in only what I need: And hopefully organize it as it all comes back in, grouping like items and placing things in zones that actually make sense to keep things functional.
- Sell / donate / dispose of what’s not needed: We’re guessing there will be a fair amount of items leaving for good. And of course if we craigslist or freecycle anything we’ll post the link for any interested locals.
By the end of it all I’m not looking to have some giant, decorated makeover – just a clean workable room that functions for all the building and staining and spraying and sawing and storing that we’d love to use it for. Though I wouldn’t hate it if it turned into a little bit of a man cave. Just sayin’…
Okay, now make me feel better. Who else has (or at least had) a shamefully messy space in their house? This is a no judgement zone. At least I hope it is. If not, I’m sure I’m getting crazy judged right now. Yikes.
Barbara says
All of you seem to have forgotten that there are only 24 hours in the day. Cut yourselves some slack. Your readers love a good clean out and organize project and the messier the start, the better.
Don’t forget Freecycle or a free sign next to your disposables at the curb as a means of passing your unwantables on to a loving home.
Shannon Summers says
Hahaha John,
Thanks so much for being so brave and sharing that with us! I love the video. Frankly I am surprised that space exists, but so happy to know that it does! Makes me feel less bad about certain places in my house like my closet under the stairs or my own garage.
You guys are the best!!!
Betsy says
I am very “out of sight, out of mind.” It seems like it would be easier for things to get out of hand like that with the entrance being outside, instead of having basement stairs from inside. Is that a Southern thing? Houses around here usually have basement stairs.
Right now, I have a beautiful new shed that my boyfriend and I built last summer, but winter approached so quickly and I just threw everything in it in a big heap. I need to pull it all out and but up some shelves and hooks and put things back nicely.
YoungHouseLove says
I wonder if it is a Richmond thing or a mid-century thing, since both of our mid-century ranches here in Richmond have had them, but I never saw them growing up in Jersey/NY.
xo,
s
Leslie says
I wouldn’t beat yourself up over this… my parents’ basement has looked like this for 30 YEARS.
ErinEvelyn says
I see opportunity, John. When Sherry posted about organizing Clara’s kid stuff the other day, I IMMEDIATELY stood up fom my desk and went to their zone (basement den) and spent an hour purging & sorting and organizing. By the end, I was feeling that familiar happy-tingly rush of satisfaction. For those of us who live the mantra “a place for all things and everything in its place”, the end result of your basement workshop will likely give you a visceral high. Feel it. Can’t wait!
Carol says
Hi! I paint furniture and we bought a house in December because we couldn’t fit my work in our apartment any longer. So we went house hunting, or better yet, workshop hunting. The house was almost incidental. BTW, our house is a circa 1957 gem that we bought from the original owners kids through the estate. We have 9″ WOOD TILE floors. Not parquet, wood tile. The house is in original condition, so we have alot of remodeling to do!
Back to mess-that would be our workshop. It’s a large one-car size garage essentially, but we have so much to-do inventory, I hardly have a place to work! Hubby bought a Jet tablesaw and a miter saw off Craigslist, then brought home a drill press, band/jig saw and a belt sander from his dad. He is a packrat and has been saving “scrap” wood, including the stuff from where he tore out a wall in the house. I dodged nails (and probably tetanus) for 6 weeks! Now he declared that I can’t bring home any more treasures until I get some moved out. I agree, but he still needs to do something with that 500lb table saw that.is.right.in.the.way.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, sounds like a room full of treasures and tools! Our idea of fun!
xo,
s
jackie bianchini says
looks more organized than my basement. I’d like to see how you guys end up using the pallets.
Eva says
I had a very messy workspace/storage room until a couple of weeks ago. To start with, my storage room is very small so to keep open the option of using it as a workspace requires me to keep all junk to a minimum. When I started the cleanup there was hardly place to walk in there because all the stuff was on the floor, svo after a lot of pairing things down, a couple of trips to a recycling centre, a lot of boxing and rearranging I am left with a very neat smallish space and have found out that we don’t really own that much stuff… it just looked like a lot when it was all a mess. All the stuff is now shelved, all the tools have their place hanging on the wall or in the tool box. The only stuff still left on the floor are a few things we have been buying on sales to redo our bathroom, so next thing on the list is the long awaited bathroom re-do! woop woop!
Krystle @ ColorTansformedFamily says
Thanks for sharing and letting us know organization and cleanliness can be a challenge even for y’all. I would live to have a work space like that. Have fun cleaning it… I can’t wait to see the end result.
Georgia says
I think it’s reaaly hard to have an organised work space unlesseverything is super organised before you start bringing things in. My work storage space is super small, and I’m always tripping overr things looking for something else. However, I will come clean and say thatmy studio/sewing room/making everything room I find really hard to keep clean. i get so caught up in my various projects that I often don’t have the time/energy to clean up after myself. I have to pack as much into those kids at school hours. Not to mention that there is wayyyy too much stuff in there as I neve really know what I”ll be using next and I have all my “stock” (made stuff) listed in my etsy store in there too. I dream of having a properly organised studioone day….with a sink and designated work spaces.
Amelia R. says
Oh thank god! You’re just like the rest of us! Is it weird that I no longer feel like I’m trying to live up to an impossible standard?
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- did you guys forget our completely insane playroom packed with stuff to be dealt with? We have two terrible rooms going on at all times! Haha.
xo,
s
angela says
The spray painting area looks a little too much like a Dexter kill room. If you mention that you have a boat people might start to wonder. Just sayin. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, well our neighbors have one…
xo,
s
Katie says
We live in a raised ranch so we don’t have a basement, per se. Therefore, everything goes up to the attic! Tons of Christmas decorations – some I use every year and some haven’t been used in ages, kids clothes/shoes – all unorganized and in various bags, boxes, and crates, house decorations that I take down and don’t want to throw out or think I might re-use. Anytime I don’t know what to do with something, I march up the ladder, toss it in the attic and let the door slam shut – out of sight! I shudder when I think about the mess up there…
Kelsey says
I’d totally be mounting some pegboard on that big blank wall of cement block to hang the rakes and shovels and such, and then build that Ana White wood storage rack too.
Paints/chemicals are required to be stored below head height in an industrial or school situation, so that chemicals can’t fall on your face/in your eyes should there be an accident of some kind. Some shelving or a metal cabinet to keep those in is nice to have.
My aunt’s garage looked like this when I moved in with her in college, except she had to keep some space for a car. I didn’t go through there much, but when spring came and I had to wrestle a dozen things around to get out the old fashioned mower, I went straight down to Home Depot and picked up a couple of those peg board hook multi-packs, and spent the afternoon making it better because I just couldn’t take it anymore. Made my organizational little heart happy to see those tidy walls and shelves.
Hope when you get done that you feel a lot better about going in there, rather than overwhelmed!
jeannette says
years ago, the guy at chicago two-flat built and/or showed a pic of a rack he had built to store his [valuable old growth upcycled woodworker freak] wood, so it wouldn’t warp lying around. there is such a thing and maybe you could build one.
http://chicago2-flat.blogspot.com/#uds-search-results
YoungHouseLove says
Love that tip!
xo,
s
kara says
I live in a townhouse without a basement, but I do have a storage room off my patio. It’s the kind where you open the door, shove things in, and slam the door shut again so nothing falls out and knocks you unconscious. I guarantee if that happens, then the door will slowly swing open and 8 years worth of stuff will pile onto your prone body. They won’t find you for months.
I keep swearing I’m going to clean it out, organize it, put in floor to ceiling shelving, and eventually move the chest freezer out there, too. Someday. Soon. Really. I promise.
Jenny Stoudt says
THANK YOU! This is the best “keeping it real” type post yet.
Sara says
Agreed. There’s no shame in John’s game. :)
Peggy says
Yeah, I have one of those. It’s my workroom/storage room. And you’re so right about it exploding- it seems like it takes no time at all to get messy!
I have an old lamp like that one you show – the 3-in-1 lamp. I keep it for when I’m working on drywall and painting- it really shows everything!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s a great tip!
xo,
s
Katie says
Every person needs a space where their inner Hoarder can roam free! There’s no shame in your game!
I have a suggestion that might solve your extra-pallet, scrap wood issue. In our shed, the previous owners nailed horizontal planks on the wall between the bare beams to create sort of “slots” for yard tool storage, scrap wood, etc. I wonder if you could affix the pallets to the wall in a way where they could be used for storage?
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh that’s a neat idea! We’ll have to see if that’ll work!
xo,
s
Katie says
We moved 4 months ago and the basement with a pull-in garage space looked exactly like that! (Or maybe even worse–there was a texture spray gun incident we don’t like to talk about!) Clearing out the trash and moving everything out helped us get it straightened out–good luck! You’re definitely not alone!
Liz says
I love that you posted this because it’s reassuring to know that other people are like this too! My husband and I totally have a spare room that has been full o’ boxes ever since we moved in 8 months ago. The pile of boxes is dwindling, slowly but surely like a melting glacier. Can’t wait to finally have that DONE!
Larissa says
The only thing I can say is dude get on that before it gets all hot and humid. But you guys seem less averse to sweating than I am.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, a very good point! It’s supposed to be 97 degrees today. Eeks!
xo,
s
Amanda says
I hate to admit it but it took three WEEKS for my husband and I to clean out and organize our two-car garage, which is also our workshop and “toy” storage. One of the things I really wanted but we did not have any room for was a scrap wood storage bin. Since it does look like you’d have the room, maybe something like this would help with your storage:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=f9d36566f7b9b95316b88961dfc5f0c2
or this:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=33007341e1487f7dadab4c26397edfab
or this:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=a47d1a5f93ff2427906b96139a553bd0
Good luck!
YoungHouseLove says
Love those! So smart!
xo,
s
Lizzie says
My family of 4 lives in a 4 bedroom home. We only need 3 bedrooms. The 4th bedroom located right off the kitchen is a disaster pit. When we hear that we are receiving company, we scramble to empty it out only to start loading it up again after they leave. On that note, you should see the garage…
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, that’s totally our playroom too! I keep thinking “once a second kid lives in there we won’t get to make it such a mess” which inevitably will be awesome and terrifying (where will we dump our stuff?!) – haha.
xo,
s
sharon says
i see far too many words used here that could all describe our garage & spare bedroom (& my husband’s office, too, if i want to be real) — horrific, disaster, scary, mess. it all makes me want to weep & gnash my teeth. the sad part is that we moved in almost five years ago & it’s practically stayed the same (with a few paredowns, organizations here & there).
i think because we don’t anticipate staying in this house for the long-term that i have adopted the mentality of organizing it if/when we move. lame, i know because i seem to be all “la-la-la, i can’t hear you” about the fact that we’ll need to organize it to sell the place. duh.
i’ll be taking notes on this process & wish y’all well!
kthxbye.
Ashley says
I was really hoping that you you never showed the basement because all your secret book projects culminated in a overhauled basement that would be revealed when the book hits the shelves. It was always curious why you hadn’t shown it and that was my best plausible explanation.
Instead, it’s always nice to be reminded that you are just as real as the rest of us. :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I wish we had a completely overhauled basement! Very creative theory! Instead, we’re just secret slobs. Haha. Wop-wop.
xo,
s
Amy @ a new old house says
No judgments here!!!!
Our garage workshop has a huge junk pile inside- scrap wood, old kiddie pools, cement blocks…
We already called a guy to come take any metal items away for recycling. The rest is going to likely need a dumpster.
At least it’s behind closed doors, so the neighbors can’t see it!
Cindy says
Our garage looks very similar. We are in a tiny house temporarily, trying to get it all fixed up to rent out when we get into our new (much larger) house. I even picked everything up about a week ago and swept up all the sawdust. Unfortunately, my husband got back to working on the house and it’s a disaster again. Not his fault though, there is no way to organize the amount of stuff we have so I just had to stack it. And he had to unstack it to get to anything.
Kate says
The unfinished room in our basement is pretty bad. I use it as a workshop as well as storage, and in the middle of projects it’s really messy down there. I cleaned it up after my last big project, but I think there’s still a little bit of sawdust to vaccum up, and there are still some baskets and boxes of stuff that is just sitting on the floor waiting to be dealth with from when we moved in 11 months ago. Opps.
Donna Jean says
First of all, let me just say that I’m envious that you HAVE a basement. It seems that most of the house in the Richmond area don’t have them. We live in a tiny house (960 sqft) with no basement and no attic. We do have a storage shed in the back yard, but it was so cluttered that it wasn’t actually functional. So a couple months ago my hubby called his brother to come over and help him clean it out. They started by pulling every thing out and putting it into piles of keep, get rid of, and ask the wife. I was disgustingly amazed at the amount of crap they pulled out of there! Most of it was trash. All we need to do now is get a nice set of heavy duty shelves to put out there so that we can move some of the stuff that is being stored IN the house out to the shed and perhaps find the floor in our office once again since it has been the dumping ground for everything. And we have already purged stuff from the office several times in the past, but with an almost 2yr old and baby #2 due in a few weeks it seems like we just keep accumulating more and more stuff!
Robin @ our semi organic life says
We live in a house in Richmond and have a 1/4 basement but it is awful. Worse than awful. I wish we didn’t have it at all. Good thing we’re renters.
Meg says
When my boyfriend and I bought our house in a short sale the previous owners left a packed-to-the-gills garage. (No basement for us as we live in CA where they most often are not present.) Some of the stuff was quite useful, pretty or cool (like some old travel pictures and love letters left by the original owners from the 1940s), but most of it was either in the wrong place (a HUGE pile of sand) or just junk (old used engine oil).
Add in to that mix our penchant for home improvement and we had ourselves a danger zone. Our scrap wood pile might possibly have been larger than yours since it was not only our scraps, but also the previous owners’ scraps as well.
We came up with a brilliant solution. We used the scrap wood to build a home for our scrap wood! We made an open cube so our pieces would stand on end instead of being stacked on the floor on top of one another. We also took every last thing out of the garage (including the sand, which took some major sweeping) and sorted like crazy.
We’ve lived in our house for one year now and since cleaning it up, the garage has been a dream!
Deb says
Good luck on tackling that project!!! We cleaned out our attic last year… like took everything out, pared down, reorganized(okay, organized~ because that would mean that at some point it was organized). Anyway, we had a yard sale and used the money we made to go towards our food on vacation! Can’t wait to see the updates as you tackle the basement!!!
Jordan@the2seasons says
You have no idea how good this post made me feel. I think our basement in your basements twin. I have been meaning to tackle it and slowly I am getting to it but it isn’t much fun working in the dark dingy basement. Thanks for showing us it really is good to know I am not the only one with a crazy out of sorts basement.
Jennifer I. says
You’re not alone! Our shame is in the garage….and organizing that bad boy has been on the to do list for a while! As well as the attic. We’re right on the coast, so no basement here….man I miss basements!!!
Ashley says
We have an unfinished basement that has become the “catch all” portion of the house. We seem to collect things from everyone that we know. We live in a college town so we have old desks, lamps, beds, and more from people that don’t want to take them when they move. We had a yard sale last week and then donated what didn’t sell. It still looks like a mini disaster area, but at least I can get to the washer and dryer now!
James Malone says
The first step is acceptance, and in that vein I’ll share and accept my own shame. I don’t own a dustpan, I use a piece of paper.
YoungHouseLove says
If you ever need a shoulder to cry on about your paper dustpan, we’re here for you James.
-John
PS: The piece of paper dustpan is kinda weird, but kinda genius at the same time.
Jen says
James, I don’t own a dustpan, either. I just suck up the pile of dirt/dust with the hose attachment on our vacuum when I’m done sweeping.
Teri says
If I had a basement I’m absolutely sure it would look like that, but since I live on the coast and below sea level, I use my home office as a catch all. I have stubbed my toes and tripped over things so many times trying to get to my computer. I really need to ‘get on that already’!
karen says
eek!! organized chaos??
Leslie says
Mine is way worse!! I’ve got a huge basement with three rooms, and only one of them is clutter-free. That’s because it is a spare bedroom. Now, however, since my garage door has a gap under it, and I forgetfully did not put my piece of drywall back in the (basement level) garage ceiling after doing some plumbing work,, we’ve got rodents coming in!!!!! It is a disaster!!!
Yours looks manageable. I found this amazing storage idea on Pinterest recently, it involves putting tracks in the ceiling and sliding those plastic storage bins into the tracks. Love the idea of getting stuff off the floor. But I also need a place to store my lumber and scrap wood in the ceiling too.
I’ve got my work cut out for me. If I had it my way, I’d just pay a contractor a jillion dollars to rip out the whole basement floor plan and make it beautiful. Alas, that is not in the budget this year. Have fun! Can’t wait to see how your organization turns out in this area. Don’t be ashamed. Hold your head up proudly!! :)
Tracie W says
Oh my goodness, our basement has a room that I call the “storage room”- it’s packed with boxes that we never unpacked from moving here (2.5 years ago) and it has all of our holiday stuff in there too. All of our linens, towels, shoes we haven’t worn in years, extra kitchen gear, you name it is in there, everywhere. There’s a reason it’s not been cleaned up. :D Unfortunately our breaker box is at the back of the room, so that’s always fun when a switch needs to be flipped. :)
Jyl says
I am right there with you. Being less than 9 weeks away from my first baby’s due date, I am nesting like WHOA! Our basement looks pretty similar, plus a lot of items from my Father and Grandmother’s house which both passed away in the last two years. My stomach flips over when I think about walking down there. I wish I could say I’m as dedicated to recycling as you are, but I’m armed with a Bagster, a community yard sale this weekend, and lots of awful electronic dance music to keep me going. May the 4th be with you, John! Good luck!
Amy says
Hey, that looks like my place! Except ours is worse – it’s in our basement rec room, which IS part of our living space – you have to pass the huge mess on the way to the laundry room. We just moved a couple of months ago from a house that had an 8 X 16 shed to store all my wood and tools (I’ve got lots of power tools, too) to one where there is basically no storage, even though the house is a lot bigger. Well, we thought we had a shed at the new place, until the first rainstorm, when my mom, who was visiting, said, “Do you realize it’s raining in your shed?” So everything had to come inside.
I think you’re lucky to have a space like that, I’m really looking forward to see how you will organize it, because I’m struggling with organizing my stuff right now!
Amy
Kim says
Love it. We have a workshop mess that puts yours to shame. My Dad saw it the other day and just shook his head in disbelief. Plus, in the middle of all that hot mess we have a sheep pelt on a pallet salted/drying. Sadly, if you walked into our workshop the sheer disorganization is what assaults the eyes — the dead animal fur is just a little horrifying after-effect.
YoungHouseLove says
Sorry, I couldn’t help but laugh at the drying sheep pelt. I don’t think you’d ever find that in my basement, but how funny would it have been if one of my graphics had been labeled “salted sheep pelt.”
-John
Margaret says
i have my office, which became a dumping ground when my roommate moved out (everything i didn’t want her to take, went in there)…right now it’s so bad i can’t see the floor, so the door is shut and i walk past it. i think you guys have inspired me to start tackling the “pit”!
Ilse den Besten says
Maby not really in the department of making you feel better but I tought it was extremely funny that while watching the video, an ad about divorce specialists popped up under the video. xD
YoungHouseLove says
Ha! Divorce me from this mess!
-John
Rachael says
Oh, man. For us, it’s the garage. I just can’t keep it clean or organized. We probably haven’t parked a car in there in over a year. Ugh! It just always falls to the bottom of the list because I know that no one will see it but me and the hubs. What’s even worse is I have everything I need to make it an organized space, I just have to DO it!
Stephanie B. says
I say you should just think of it as proof of all the hard work you’ve done! :) Also, we like to see the reality of the situation – sometimes the clean house pictures look awesome (duh! you guys rock!), but then I wonder: is their house always clean? They better never house crash me! :)
rachael says
Our garage looks exactly like that, my husband has been hoarding scrap pieces of wood and drywall as well. I couldn’t even get the lawn mower out the other day!
Kim W Rily says
Our garage/work shop is just the same. Bikes, paint cans, lawnmower, bug spray, spider webs, plant food, table saw, old projects, halloween haunted house pieces, Christmas boxes that still haven’t been lifted into the rafters, stuff to be garage saled, it’s all there. I even cleaned it all out last year, but things are creeping back in one piece at a time. I’m hoping to build a tool shed off to the side of our house so I can tame the garage and we can turn it into a man cave.
ami says
No judgments here. Our garage is worse than your basement. It’s shameful. Our house is small (1050 sq. ft.) with very little storage, so the garage is our dumping ground, staging area, “quick-the-neighbors-are-coming-over-hide-that-pile!” area, laundry room, etc. My husband and I try to each work on it for 1 hour each weekend. I set the timer, put on my headphones and go to work. Sure, the mess piles back up because it’s constantly evolving. I try to tell myself it’s OK, but it does make me anxious. I try to look at it like the kitchen – I don’t feel anxious when the kitchen gets messy and needs to be cleaned. It’s going to get messy because it’s being used. I don’t live in a museum for goodness sake!