Basement Flooded? Get Organized!

The recent flooding caused many basements to flood with water backup, including mine--ugh! For those of you who have been putting off getting that basement storage area organized, now you have no choice, you have to go through it all. Here are some tips to get it organized quickly:

• Be Ruthless. If something has been water damaged, toss it if at all possible. It will not only make the whole job easier because you'll have less stuff to organize, it will also make the basement more clutter free. Take advantage of the opportunity to do some major purging.
• Don't try to weed out someone else's stuff. If your husband's tools and collections need an overhaul, don't take this as your opportunity to get rid of his stuff, it will only cause more problems. Talk with him and set some time aside for him to make those decisions.
• Avoid overwhelm. Don't look at the area as one big mess (even if it is). Look at each item and make decisions. It's a waste of time to worry about it, just dig in.
• Create Zones. If you have a basement full of all kinds of different clutter, create zones of like items so you can start to create some semblance of order.
• Contain. After you've sorted like items together, determine what containers are best and begin organizing items into the proper containers. Stay tuned for tomorrow's Friday Favorite and see what container I recommend for basement storage.
• Label. It's great to have items sorted into containers, but before long you're going to forget what's in them. Clearly label and even post a list on the outside of the container so you know exactly what's inside.
• Smile! Getting a daunting project tackled is a great feeling.

Although you may have been forced to clean out your basement, the silver lining might be that the clutter is finally cleaned up!