The Horror that lived under the stairs

I have organized my books in the basement by color, which was much harder than I expected and I am still not completely satisfied with the results. I think I may need to accessorize the shelves better which means a trip to Marshall's or Home Goods (the problem is finding the time to do it). And there is an orphan shelf on the bottom right for those books I couldn't fit in anywhere. What to do????

But this post is not about our bookcase but the horror that lurks behind this door. The door to the storage closet under our basement stairs.

What I am about to show you is shameful and horrifying. I wish I could say that its only been in this stage for a short but that would be a bold face lie. Its been this bad for a loooooong time and we have only added to the pile over the past year till it was as out of control as you see here.

This is what bodly greeted you upon opening the door. Hey look at me I'm the Peterson's debris from home projects and somewhere is this heap are our home, gardening, and paint tools as well as seasonal decorations.

And it didn't get any better the further you went in the closet.

At first I played with the idea of putting in some type of closet organization system but when I really thought about it I came to the conclusion that the closet was too narrow for us to get large bulk items on and off shelves and what we really needed was just a good old fashion purge.

The closet below the stairs had become our dumping ground for anything we didn't want to go through and divide into keep or toss, so by default we just kept everything. It was also where we threw any of our tools or left overs from home projects without any thought to organizing them.

A couple of weeks ago I rolled up my sleeves and just decided to jump in and tackle it. It's not the sexiest or most glamorous before and after but it sure as heck a 100% improvement.

Now when I open the door I am greeted by nicely stacked bins that hold all our tools and seasonal decor. What a couple of Ikea bins can do to cutting out the dread of going into the closet. I just need to add labels now to each of the bins.

And now I can actually walk all the way to back of the closet and everything is neatly stacked and clear and out in the open. No more searching through bins and basket. No more reject furniture. No more junk!

No More Horror Beneath the Stairs!