A Full House...

We basically have 3 households...in one.  Yep.  That's a lot of stuff. 

Twenty years ago after living in a mobile home and then an 1100 square foot house for about 10 years, we built the "then" house of our dreams.  Around 3500 sq ft.  Huge compared to our previous living quarters.

But bigger house, means more junk to keep and not get rid of as you should!

The pile grows....

Then 8 years ago, Kent's aging parents sold their home near Atlanta and moved their cummulated belongings of 60-ish years of marriage to our home.  They pared down by all means...many of the kids got furniture items (thank goodness) but they still brought plenty...a truck load. 

The pile grows again....

Then in May, my son and his family, moved to Knoxville.  They moved from their own home to an apartment...on the 2nd floor.  Needless to say, they needed a place to store tubs of children's clothes and some furniture items as well.  Wha-lah....our basement.

So the pile grows even bigger....

So today, I decided a project was in order.  We have a sofa graveyard down there.  3 large sofas.  We are paring down to 1.  It is almost hoarding and selfish to keep the others.  An executive decision has been made...by me.

There is a bed set up down there that mice have decided was for their pleasure.  Yep, gross as it seems.  It's gone now.  Yuk and PTL!  The mice will have to look elsewhere.  I'm sure they will. 

So today, I spent about 3 hours sweeping, killing spiders, removing icky webs...and moving 11 tubs of clothes, 15 garbage bags of clothes, 2 changing tables, chairs, bed frames, and finally repacking my Christmas decorations!  For me, I had a major case of the "heebie-jeebies".  I don't like things that creep and crawl and surprise you unexpectedly...yuk!

To the visiting eye...it will still look totally cluttered.  To the way it was...it is pristine!  Scarey...huh?!?  The picture does not do this room justice.  But I have a plan.  More tubs for the clothes...for trips to TN...removing of a broken treadmill that found its way here from GA and will continue the paring down process of old TV's and GA boxes that have never been unpacked/opened.  Most of the tubs will going to TN when they find the buy the house of their dreams.  I'll be removing the tables...etc. You should have seen this room and the back of the basement before I started...I failed to take of picture of that unfortunately.

I feel like I have climbed Mt. Everest today.  In the process, I found the full bed that was my daughters while she was young...she's been looking for one to paint white...she's thrilled!!!

So a huge step has been taken.  No longer do I fear Neicy Nash will come with her crew to proclaim she has found the messiest house in the nation! 

No more Neicy...I'm doing this one .....one room at a time!