Boy, do I ever have an exciting few days in store for me. Wait ’til you hear! I am off work today (ok, most of the day) and will also be off Monday and Tuesday. Not that this upcoming project will take that long (please tell me it won’t), but because Knitting Daughter is off on a little trip to visit a friend, and for some reason I thought I’d turn my attention to the house.
Or more specifically, the basement.
It’s a nice basement. After all, that’s where Loopy resided for the first year of our shop. Now, that old Loopy corner is all set up for my scrapbooking. (Never mind that I haven’t scrapbooked in four years – which, coincidentally, is how old The Loopy Ewe is. Enough said.) But hey, it’s ready for me, as soon as I want to sit down and do it.
There’s an area for sitting and watching tv. (With the oft-used treadmill behind the couch. Cough.)
But the scary part of the basement? It’s The Back Room. Really, I usually avoid it at all costs. It’s not that big (which is part of the problem) and it’s almost impossible to find anything in there (which is also part of the problem). But lately, it seems to multiply things when we’re not looking. No one sees the back room. If you were to ring my doorbell and ask, I’d tell you no. If you were over, watching a movie and knitting with me and Knitting Daughter, and begged to see the scary Back Room? I’d tell you no. Also, no to my parents, my mother-in-law, my best friends, and the meter reader. (Not that there is a meter back there to read, but just in case there was – the answer would be no.) No one gets to visit The Back Room.
So I am going to be buried back there over the next few days, sorting, tossing, Goodwilling, and organizing. Who knows what I will find? I can hardly contain my excitement. I know that WH was pretty excited when I mentioned this possibility of organizing to him. (As a member of our household, he DOES get to see The Back Room, but he tries not to.) I hope I come back out alive.
Am I alone in this? Do you have a room, or a closet, or a part of your home that no one gets to see? That needs a bit of organizing? That is off limits to everyone but you? (Now that I showed you a picture of my Back Room, I’m assuming you’d allow me to see your unorganized area. I just need to knock on your door and ask, right? Just between us?)
Sheri whomightonedaydeletethiswholepost
PrettysureIdon’twantthatpictureinitafterall.
Oh dear — your Back Room already looks so organized, at least on the surface! You put us all (or at least me) to shame . . . .
Oh, sadly, yes…although mostly it belongs to DH! (He’s the one who stored two grocery bags of scraps from a quilt which I had put in the trash…the little teeny tiny scraps from trimming the edges of pieces and the layered quilt….because I “might need them someday”…). Your picture at least shows shelves! Ours is stacks (which sometimes fall over…)
The quantity stored goes down occasionally, but gradually fills back up (he’s also a yard sale junkie). I used to try and help clear out – except as he would have to go through whatever I had put in the outgoing pile, and 1/2 to 3/4 would go right back into the heap!
However he’s just inherited a bunch of woodworking tools, so I’m hoping, as he claims to want a workshop area, that he will clear out to make space for it (as the last major clearing was related to acquiring a small sailboat which he really, really wanted…)
Your back room looks like I wish my house looked. We are in a continual state of flux. Still have not unpacked completely from my last trip-I might as well wash the clothes and repack them for the next trip.
I blame the chickens, the fish, the dogs.
But in my heart, I know the real problem is…the fiber. It tempts me.
My house is a mess but I have a lovely new shrug blocking even as I type.
Okay, this is just weird, you have the same rug and the same color sofas and pillows (and a very similar style) that I have in my living room. Do I have disorganized rooms? Hmmmmm…where do I start? Maybe with the entire huge walk-in closet full of the “kids” stuff? Did I mention the “kids” don’t live here anymore?
I would gladly show you mine. We just moved and it is all in boxes. I was just thinking that I should take a box out and go through it today. I still might though I do have a new batt that I want to spin.
Gee, your Back Room looks like our garage, which is one of the more organized parts of our condo! I’m currently de-junking the rest of the place. If you come up with any good ideas for deciding what to pitch, what to keep, and what to do with unwanted stuff, please post them!
You gave me the incentive I needed to start cleaning my “back room” projects. I just reorgnized my sweater shelves in my closet and it makes me feel good. Next, down in the basement, the laundry room to be exact, to tackle the mess. Mind you I am retired and do not have a full time job, so I figured if you can do it so can I. Good luck on your project!
All right – who told you?
Actually, there are several areas of our house that have this problem, and only one of them belongs entirely to me.
Hubby decided to paint this summer, and on top of the usual ones, he’s created a few new ones that I hope are on their way out.
My favorite is the storage closet upstairs, that he decided to ‘reorganize’, and then asks ME where things are in it. The line that goes with this is “What is the difference between a man and a woman?” Answer – “A man can’t find in his own kitchen what a woman can find in someone else’s kitchen.”
Yup. It’s my basement, the whole basement. Soonish (August is pretty busy), I want to tackle it. I am actually sort of looking forward to it. But as bad as the basement is, the back basement room is terrifying. Before we moved in here three years ago, my husband had a “junk” drawer in our apartment (you know, where the odd tools, random cords and who knows what else goes) and now he has an entire room. It’s meant to be a workshop and it has lots drawers and cabinets for organizing. But my husband doesn’t organize. He just puts stuff in the room like it’s a drawer. Shudder. I think I’ll let him tackle that one! 🙂
Good luck on your “purging” weekend! I have been undertaking the same thing but on a slower basis. A few hours here and there. I really have a whole house to do. Closets, basements, cupboards, etc. I’ve lived there 18 years and plan to sell in 2 when my youngest graduates high school.
I have been to Goodwill three times in the last month and the trash men officially hate me.
Try not to think of it as “the scary back room” – think of it as your “time capsule”…I’m sure your archaeological efforts will excavate all sorts of interesting things 🙂
My yarn room is the worst. I’m currently trying to go through my Dad’s house to have a sale since he moved to a small place. The more I clean out his stuff, the more I want to down-size my stuff. I keep telling myself “it’s just stuff”. Watching tv shows about hoarders and cleaning out an over-abundance of things motivates me too. I don’t want my house to end up like that! Right now whatever I clean out of my house can go to Dad’s to be sold, so maybe we’ll get a little $$ for it. (to buy more yarn???).
After two years in my house, I need to start organizing my craft room so I can actually use it as a craft room. It currently contains all of the boxes that I didn’t know what to do with when I moved in…probably because those boxes were never unpacked when I moved the time (or two) before. Obviously, that is a sign that I need to get rid of whatever is in there!
My dream is to have a desk/place to sew, a comfy chair so I can spin and weave, storage for my stash, wheels, loom and other supplies and still have a futon so it can be used as a 2nd guest bedroom. I need a miracle worker to figure that layout out.
Used to feel like our whole house was this way…two teen girls, a 4 year old, an a husband who collects things. I’ve got a lot of yarn (mostly from TLE) but it is sorted into pretty bins. It’s the books that multiply, the mail/magazines/papers that breed on my dining room table, and the collection of old computers DH plans to play with when he retires in 20 years (if we are lucky). Do we really need the 286 pc that he used when I met him in 1987?
We are moving in a year and I thought that would help the purge – except his company will pay for the move so his philosophy is “who cares? it doesn’t cost us anything to keep it.” Yeah – nothing but my sanity.
I’ll just keep knitting up socks and shawlettes and scarfs. We won’t talk about fiber reproduction….
oh dear! We sold our house recently and had to move 20 years worth of stuff from a 4000 sq ft home to a 1000 sq ft apt. The garage is stuffed from top to bottom and side to side with who knows what! I’m waiting until the temperature here goes below 100 to tackle the mess. So if you have an great organizing tips….please pass them on!
I had to laugh out loud when I read your post. Our non-finished half of the basement has been called the The Scary Side of the Basement since we moved in to our new house 8 years ago. Some stuff just got dumped and never put away on the nice shelves we had put in. Some stuff got dumped when my son moved home from college, when he moved to an apartment, when he got married….my daughter still has every paper she ever wrote in HS, college, med school. Lots of toys, too. My grandson will ask, “Can we look in the Scary Side for star wars stuff, legos, Lincoln Logs, hockey sticks…you name it, we find it”. No need for new stuff at Grandmas, we have the the Scary Side full of the effluvia (always wanted to use that word) of life.
This winter I made a real effort at going through it and have done about 3/4 of it. Goodwill got a Jeep full. Now I just need a burn pile. My husband is curiously unwilling to tackle this.
Good luck on your project. It’s a great feeling to get SOME of it done.
Sadly my living room/yarn room looks like a back room type room. I have many (I won’t confess to how many) XXL Ziploc bags on my floor FULL of yarn and fiber and quite a few 70 gallon bins also full of yarn and fiber – so desperately asking me to organize it all. I think some of the yarn is from when I first started knitting. That said, you’ve inspired me. As soon as IKEA has the bookcase I want in stock, I’m going to go get it and organize all the pretties and maybe weed some out too.
Good luck with the project this weekend and enjoy your time off with Knitting Daughter.
There must be something in the air. I actually started last weekend. I have plans to continue this weekend or at least by the end of the month. T he best thing is that DH is ebaying some of his artifacts so it will only get better.
We have a totally unfinished basement, and it’s not my most favorite place. When we moved, everything we didn’t think we would use went down there. When our son moved out, most of his stuff stayed. My grandkids always want to go down there to play, but I’m afraid I will lose them in the maze of boxes. So I really admire your Back Room and wish mine were half as organized.
I’ve ‘hired’ my goddaughter to come and organize my back room for me this weekend. It’s actually my studio space, shared with my DD (who doesn’t have an organizational bone in her body). My space is passable, but hers, oy. Now that I’m on crutches, I have an excuse not to do any organizing, but I’d still really like it to be tidier. We’ll see how long it lasts!
Good luck!
The dreaded Junk Room! It has a treadmill, clothes I can’t/don’t wear, boxes I haven’t opened since I moved over 2 years ago….Shameful. I already have an office/fiber room, so I can’t motivate myself with visions of making that space useful. Maybe I’ll get inspired by everyone else’s grit and resolve, so be sure to share your success stories!
Ok….now when we get back in town, you can come and help your parents sort stuff in their crowded back room. I’m sure that we will find some of your stuff there too….do you think?
I was supposed to clean mine out this summer, still procastinating about that. Mine has stuff piled, no boxes, just a big jumbled mess.
I did buy some plastic bins and drawers, now I just need the incentive to do it. It’s supposed to rain this weekend, might be a good time to tackle it.
Thanks for the inspiration
Pretty much the whole house, but especially my office. I couldn’t even get into it for years. Now I can walk into the front of it, if I keep my boys from deciding to redecorate, then it’s really a mess….
Some dear friends, whom we’ve known for seven years, recently remarked, “You know, we’ve never actually seen the inside of your garage.” I took them in to a) demonstrate my faith in the strength of our friendship and b) to prove there isn’t a body in there.
I really wish I could loan everyone my Aunt Darella. She’s an invaluable organizer, and makes it relatively painless. She doesn’t pass judgment and there’s no guilt. She just asks a lot of good questions and keeps the process moving. I love it when she comes to visit!
If anyone lives in the San Diego area and needs her services, PM me on ravelry (brendajosephson).
Good luck with the cleaning/organizing. I wish I had that much time to organize my hall closet (our version of the back room). Currently it holds our wrapping paper/boxes/tissue stash, my husband’s geeky board games, all my knitting bags (there are quite a few), a vacuum, and various other boxes that we don’t have a place for.
Also, who does the old camera collection belong to in your photo of the scrapbooking area – which is very cute BTW. My dad collects antique cameras and has amassed quite a collection.
Have fun!
No I will not show you my ‘back room’, sorry. I know you shared, but still NO!
You are so funny! First you say no one can see your back room and then you go and show it to like thousands of people. Gotta love it. Please show us pics when you are finished.
Oh this makes me laugh. I took last Friday off with the hopes of cleaning out the house. (I do not know what made me think one day was even close to enough time!) I did manage to mostly clean out the playroom side of the basement, but it shames me to say that my studio area is sadly like your back room. Lots of stuff to weed through. Maybe I will get back to it some this weekend…
Ugh!! Your back room looks better than most of my house. The best is upstairs which we had to totally empty last year to finish into livable space – supposedly to be my knitting and quilting “studio” (sounds great, doesn’t it?). However, the worst place is the 4 season “front” porch (I do not invite company over) because it is full of boxes removed from the attic with 20+ years of treasures and our son’s “stuff” which he doesn’t seem to have room in his condo to take out of our house. It must get emptied by Sept 2 because we have a design team coming to replace/repair the windows. I think I need Brenda’s Aunt Darella…….
Wow – I was going to ask you how you managed to get into my house and take a picture of the Back Room in our basement – seriously, yours and mine could be twins. And I have a scrapbooking station in my basement as well, which hasn’t been used in about 4 years – which is about the time I discovered The Loopy Ewe. 🙂
Heck yeah! When my inlaws visited last, we took a lot of my craft stuff (the guest room is also my craft room) and put it in the closet. Now the closet is awfully difficult to navigate! I only have 2 weeks before I can also put my attention to that monstrosity!
Oh your back room looks like the one in our house. Hubby is going to clean and organize it once he retires this fall. I didn’t ask…he offered and I’m not turning down an offer like that! It is full of fabric I use to make bandannas for the Golden Retriever Rescue; unused crockpots, junk, boxes that should have been tossed years ago, torn dog beds that I will fix someday….good luck. May be see a photo after you are done? It will be inspirational. Good luck!
I wish I was as organized as you, but my place always looks well lived in
Wow – were you reading my blog and got inspired? 😀 Last Saturday was my office and a number of closets, this Saturday it’s the guest room which became the staging room for last week’s cleanup . . . there are photos.
I’ve been buying yarn at the rate of 2-5 projects a month for 21 years. I’ve been finishing projects at the rate of 2-5 a year over the same time interval. You can do the math right? The other 1200+ projects in various stages of completion are in the (insert scary music here) attic in ziploc plastic bags inside of rubbermaid bins.
I don’t invite people up to see, but hubby does. He says he is gathering witnesses in case he ever wants to have me committed.
i can say no, maybe a closet or two but my OCD keeps things from getting to crazy, i think they are crazy but folks who come over give me fun grief saying they wish their houses were as chaotic as mine. Of course i have gotten hubby used to things so unfortunately he sees it as chaos like i do, but he in no way suffers from ocd., just spoiled i guess. My craft room is the most organized.
Call me when you finish, and I’ll give you directions to my house so you can work on my basement. You may need to take off a bit more time for mine, though. Think sabbatical. If you really would come clean my basement, in return I’d be happy to go to the Loopy Room and fondle yarn and keep the elves in line. 😉
Do I have a basement for you. Yes half of it is not too bad but the other half is a total nightmare. My husband is a wood carver and he has every tool, wood blank, item you could imagine. PLus ALL kinds of unfinished projects. That would drive me crazy since once I start a project I have to finish it. But maybe someday, when he retires, it may get cleaned up. He has visions of moving it all out to our two car garage and turning that into his workshop. We’ll see.
Hey, off the subject. Is anyone from the St Louis area going to the Stitches midwest market in Schaumburg IL Aug 20-22? I would love to go just to the market, but don’t really want to go by myself. Am I a chicken?? Is Loopy EWE going to be there?
I am so very ashamed to say I have two bedrooms like that. 🙁 I started pulling stuff out of one closet trying to weed through, reorganize and eliminate some ‘stuff’. Only to have my sister call and say: I’m coming for a visit!!! Arrrrgh!!!! I had to stop and cram things back in the closet although I did get rid of about 3 loads of stuff at Goodwill……
And why am I getting rid of ‘stuff’??? So I can have room for my excessive yarn stash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂
A girl has to know her priorities, right? lol
The whole basement and my house in general:-) Seriously, I have very organized cabinets, closets, and pantry. But my basement is the pits. It’s an unfinished full basement with 4 distinct areas: laundry and shower stall, storage and such, hubby’s hunting stuff and, lastly, the computer desk. My yarn is on the long wall between hubby’s area and the computer.
I tease my MIL that if she cleaned my house, I would organize her stuff. We make a good team:-)
Yes, my basement/storage area at the condo. We moved in 8 years ago and by this spring it was a total mess. I spent two days of my vacation cleaning it out. Two carloads of stuff to Good will and lots of trash. How many suitcases do two people need anyway? It is now lovely. Except for the rack of shelves that is my husband’s stuff which he has yet to touch. You will be so happy when it is done, trust me.
OMG, you should see my whole basement! Not just the back room, but the whole thing! BFFLiz finally got to see it for the first time last year. Trust me. Your scary back room is not as scary as the scariest part of my basement. And then there is also the garage and the attic. Talk about scary? **shudders** Yes. I need a vacation just to tackle one part of that. I’ll PM you a pic if you really want to see it…. But it’s just between us, k?
Oh, Sheri, my back room is so much worse than yours! I sort of just push open the door and throw. I don’t even let my kitty in there–she’s a black cat and I’m afraid I’d never find her!
I admire you for tackling yours. I should do it, too, but…
Sheri – I am so jealous of your back room. No basements in Texas, and no place in this house for a back room. Things have to be stuffed into closets, or put on storage racks over the car in the garage. I would LOVE to have a back room to organize again. And you are welcome to stop by and check out the lack of a back room anytime!
Right now I’d say that entail my whole house, about the ONLY thing properly organized is my yarn. And well, I suppose that’s how it should be 🙂
Once you start, keep rolling! It is addictive. I am going through a whole house with 30 years of collected objects, some left behind by the children who are all adults now. Set yourself an objective date – mine is five years for this first run through, and it you haven’t used it, missed it or whatever in 5 years – get rid of it. Take a picture, give it away. We donated 14 boxes of books to the library last week (no knitting books) and it started to make a dent. I can now find the things I want to find and use, and I’m loving it. Have some fun with it too.
No, you aren’t alone but I don’t want to talk about it. De Nile ain’t just a river in Egypt, ya know!
We moved from California 19 years ago and there are boxes in my “Craft” room (scary back room clone) that have never been emptied. Then my painting stuff, quilting stuff, scrapbooking stuff and now “very important” knitting stuff have been added. So much stuff I can’t get in there to do any crafting. Now, the stuff has started to take over the breakfast area in my kitchen. And is the source of many discussions with my DH about what I’m going to do when he retires and we move to Nevada in 18 months. Oh, well! I still have time.