Day 22: The Basement

Once again, I'm taking today off.  The assignment for our little Spring Cleaning Challenge is mute for us here in Phoenix.  Although I desperately wish we had the storage that a basement provides (not even necessarily for boxes, but for excess furniture and extra kitchen chairs) - basements are rare out here.  Apparently builders don't think they're necessary in you don't live in "tornado ally."  Whatever.

And in our last house, we had a great hand-built attic above the garage, but again...with a two story house, the attic is harder to get to, so we just don't bother.

If you do have a basement or attic, and have the luxury of using it for storage, beware of allowing your stuff to expand to the amount of available storage space you have!  Because we have to keep all of our holiday decorations and childhood memorabilia in the garage with our vehicles, we tend to keep much less "stuff" than those with adequate space to store such items. 

So today's spring cleaning task might be a tough assignment that requires help from your spouse and may span over several days.  But don't be discouraged!  Still give it a shot...go through a few random boxes (ahem...college textbooks and spare scraps of wood, yard, etc. that you're keeping for a craft project "just in case") and get rid of items.  Be brutal.  Think about what you genuinely love and use and keep only those things.  Limit your personal memorabilia to one or two boxes MAX and part with the rest.  If you have to take pictures of items to show your kids someday, so be it.  But remember: you already have pictures of yourself in your high school cap and gown. And the lei they gave you as you stepped off the plane on your honeymoon in Hawaii. And your mom probably has plenty of pictures of you with your childhood teddy bear and blanket.  And...and...and. 

Just sayin'.  Happy cleaning!