If you find yourself in the middle of a cluttered, dusty basement, you’re not alone. Messy basements are more common than we’d like to admit. We often dump unnecessary belongings into the basement with the idea that we’ll get to organizing later. However, between work and other activities in our lives, we often neglect this space in our house.
To help you bring your basement back to life for your family to enjoy a space for entertainment and other activities, we have five basement organization tips for you.
Get Rid of Items You Don’t Need
The first step to organize your basement is purging and cleaning. It’s important to take note of what you have, what you need and what you don’t.
Spend a couple of days doing a thorough inventory of everything in your basement. As you go through your belongings, evaluate each item and decide whether to keep it and find a spot for it, or to get rid of it by donating, recycling or throwing it in the trash.
Making these decisions might be hard, so here are a few things to consider that might help you through the process:
Have you used it recently? Is it valuable to you? If not, it’s time to donate, recycle or chuck it.
Is this an item you seldom use and can borrow from someone should you need it? Give it to someone who might use it more often and lend it to you now and then.
Do you need a whole set, or can you keep just the essential? Pick what you need and get rid of the rest.
As you go, clean the areas that have cleared out after getting rid of items. This will make the cleaning process less challenging
Create a Storage Layout
Now that your basement is clean, dry and hopefully smelling better, it’s time to create a storage plan. Think of all the things you decided to keep after the decluttering phase and create categories you can sort them into. Then, designate zones where you will store certain types of items. These zones can be split into seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter) or types (toys, Christmas, vacationing, etc.). Mark each zone with clear labels and start sorting your items into each of these zones.
Having these zones will help keep the clutter under control by making it easier to know where to find items you need, and where to put them away once you don’t need them.
Install Sturdy Shelving and Use Air-tight Containers
Once you have sorted your items into their corresponding zones, you can decide the size and amount of containers you will need for each zone. It’s best to use clear plastic containers so you can see what’s stored inside. Additionally, containers should be air-tight to keep out pests like silverfish and other bugs. Add a few desiccant packets to control moisture and fill the containers with your items.
Now that you know how many zones and containers you have, it’s time to get some sturdy and durable shelving and hardware. Open shelving is a great choice because it allows air circulation while providing ease of access to your items. You can also install a few hooks to hang bags and other lighter items.
Do Yearly Inventory Checks
You have invested time and effort to clean up and organize your basement; now, keep it that way. Set a reminder to review the stored inventory once a year, and continue to get rid of items that you no longer need. Get into the habit of going through what you already have before adding new items to your basement.
Rent A Storage Unit
If you have too many items in your basement or in your home that you want to keep, or if you want to free up more space for other activities, you can rent a storage unit to store your belongings. You can rent a storage unit size according to your needs. For example, if you only have a few items to store, you can choose a 5 x 5 feet storage unit. If you have more or bigger items to store, you can rent a 5 x 8 feet storage unit, or bigger.
At U-Lock Mini Storage, we have storage facilities across Greater Vancouver and Vancouver Island. Our facilities include self storage Victoria, self storage Parksville, self storage Nanaimo, self storage Burnaby, self storage White Rock and Surrey, and self storage Chilliwack. Contact us if you have any questions!