by Judith Whitehead

Created on: April 21, 2008

Cleaning Out The Basement Can be A Sobering Experience

I recently watched one of my favorite TV programs, "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Her topic that day was cluttered homes and basements. It seems some people horde items to the point that they can't function in their own homes. I found it to be inspiring enough to make a plan with my husband to clean out our basement, which is a perpetual catchall for all those items we "might need" in the future. I knew this would be a monstrous task because we have a "saver of valuable items" in our home. I think people are divided into two categories-those who save and those who throw out. We have one of each in our home. I came from a family of "let's throw it out," while my husband is from the savers group. This makes for a daunting task every time we enter the basement. But through compromise and a little convincing, we are making great progress. Most of our basement consists of items, such as old furniture, that may be of use to our children when they move out. Well, we've moved three times now, and these things are still waiting to be of use. We decided to tak Oprah's advice and make three piles-one for garbage, one for saving and one for the Goodwill truck. During the past few weeks, we have run across so many treasures. It has been a trip down memory lane. We discovered photo albums that document every year of our children's memorable moments. We also found clothing that is three sizes too small saved very carefully in boxes just waiting to be worn again. Of course, the styles are outdated and it would be short of a miracle if those things ever fit again. It has become a sobering experience to see what has been stored in this large area of the house-maily piles of clutter and useless papers. I almost envy those areas of the country that don't have basements to save these things in. It seems that whenever we replace anything in our home, we save the previous item just in case we need it in the future. The Waste Management tema that collects trash in the neighborhood must think someone has just moved in each week. I am almost on a personal level with the Goodwill man who collects my contributions each week. It has given us great satisfaction to know that not only are we donating to a good cause, but we are also slowly organizing the basement and ridding it of clutter. We have a long way to go, though. Our basement is large and in some areas, stacked to the ceiling with sealed boxes that need sorting through. I have become so inspired that when the basement is finished, I think we will start on the other parts of the house. I know my husband will be none to happy to partake in that task. We have also come across items that would be good for listing on eBay. That has proven to be a great way to unload items and are very satisfying when sold. As for the unsold items, there's always our annual summer block sale.

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