Decluttering = A Weight Off My Shoulders!

One of these days before we die...we are going to have our entire house organized and decluttered! 
{...well...maybe not the entire house...}

But we may have finally made that dream a reality in our basement over the weekend!  And it felt so good to have that hidden weight off of our shoulders!  Even though we couldn't always see it...it just made us cringe knowing that the basement was maybe even a hoarder's worst nightmare!
It was years of collecting things for later...not knowing what to do with things....and just put it in the basement for now things...and it was time to say good-bye once and for all!  It's true...we could probably still cut a lot of the things down by half...but we've made huge strides!

I don't have any before photos {Thank the Lord...I don't ever want to remember it!  Just imagine seeing zero floorspace and piles of holiday decor and boxes and lots and lots of cr@p as soon as you entered the doorway...oh wait...you could barely even walk through the doorway!}

But the after makes me breathe so much lighter {after the dust finally settled!}

{and now that there is actually a way to get into the storage area...Dan can finally put a door up!}

The goal all along was to have all the toys accessible for the kids to go in and pull out what they wanted and easy to put away...

{hey...when did we get a trampoline?}

All the toys are stored closest to the door while the home and holiday decorations are stored toward the back...so if I ever fall off the wagon and just throw the holiday stuff aside in a rush...at least it will be in the back! 

And it's labeled!  {insert the song of Angels!  It's maybe a small miracle that I might be catching on and enjoying this phenomenon of organization!}

The kids may have even thought they were in Heaven! 

Where did all these toys come from?  Who knew they were there all along?!

There is still some fine-tweaking to do.

We have a long table...and I have tons and tons of wrapping paper that need some better organization...and I would love to set up a wrapping station!  {aka - Santa's little Workshop!}

But we are so thrilled to have this finished! 

Now that there was a place to put the toys...it also allowed me to clean under the cabinets that Dan built on the play side...so Emily had better access to her million Barbies, Littlest Pet Shop and doll house decor!

{also note the peek of the not-so-lucky items that will make their way to the dump by the door...can you hear the music and envision the truck driving away from our house! ha!}

{seriously...when did we get this?}

Alex's Legos...

{there it is again...I really need to put up some curtains!

...cue the Sanford & Son theme music again!}

And now that it's all done...we can finally truly relax and enjoy movie time!

I do believe that some organization is necessary and a must in a home or you're always going to be looking around and thinking about what should be done, what needs to be done or spending time looking for things that you can't find...and now I will have a sense of relief  coming down here and just playing and enjoying being with kids and not stressing about the mess!  Now we can just concentrate on creating fun messes with the toys and maybe a little bit of popcorn crumbs here and there!

{and these were taken in the morning...with kids still in jammies!}

{Alex is syncing my iPod to watch the Smurfs with the interactive activities to go along with the movie...only Alex!}

{and now that the storage area is cleaned out...we can also finally have the plumbing hooked up for water and get a microwave for popcorn!  Our work is finally paying off!}

aaaaahhh...The weight has been lifted!

Well...I guess I still need to lift the weight off of my other shoulder...

The kitchen cabinets cause me to mutter some not so nice words under my breath...

...and the garage...

...and the closets...

...sigh...

to be continued!