The Great Purge: Day 2; I’ve got a plan!
If you are following along, then you know I had just one goal for April. A BIG one! The goal was to get my basement storage room under control once and for all. Here is the link to where the room stood when I left you all. The biggest challenge was working on a plan. After throwing and giving away more than half of what was stored down there, I had a lot of free space. I just wasn't sure on how to use it. I have finally come up with a plan and I'll give you a preview. Though I will warn you that it isn't completely finished yet. I now have even bigger dreams which involve power tools, so I'll need more time to get that done.
My obstacles I had to work around were heating and water units. 
Thankfully, there was good maneuverability around them and with everything out, there was a blank wall and wooden shelves for storage. However, the wooden shelves were too narrow for my large tubs of seasonal decorating and other storage, so I found a nook on the other side of the units to store all of my tubs and my 2 Christmas trees. If you remember, I had 4. Yes, I got rid of 2 of them!
Here is what that looks like now.
Could be better and I need to make real tags for the bins. For now, I just taped paper labels on so I wouldn't forget what was in them.
The other side of the area is really where I've gotten to work.
I first decided to use this space as a targeted storage area for my craft supplies, wrapping area and my Kidizen clothes store storage. All of these things were in my office before and with my general office supplies and also my homeschooling supplies, it was getting tight.
My first stop was IKEA for storage bins and fun, colorful containers to conceal items.
I found a super colorful rug, a card table and a rolling chair to create a desk space.
This space will be good for wrapping gifts or wrapping up my clothes items to ship out.
I went to town organizing my supplies and made labels for all my bins.
I don't do crafts every day, but when I need something and I don't necessarily want to sit in the storage room to do it, I can bring it out to the bar area just outside the storage room and sit on a stool watching tv and do a craft, or I can use this teal tote I purchased to load up the supplies I want for a specific project and carry them wherever in the house to use.
I moved my wrapping and gift bags down and put them in concealed boxes with lids so nothing would get dirty.
Same system as I had before, just moved down for a designated area to wrap!
The clothes that I am selling on Kidizen got special labeled rolling bins and my supplies to wrap and ship are organized on the table.
I grabbed some extra lidded boxes and put my Easter dishes and Russian dishes each in a box. Since I only use these special items once a year, they could be moved out of my kitchen into storage. Along with these, I created a box each for other party and decorating items.
Tucked away in the corner is what was left of our paint colors after purging.
Last but not least, I created an area for Olivia to store her items for her homeless ministry. 
I am so happy with the progress I've made and the way it is turning out! So much more functional than the big mess I had before. Let's take a last look at that scary before photo.
And now the after.
My next mission is to put a pegboard system up on the big blank wall over the table and maybe organize my tools??? What do you think?
