Barb the Client did a fabulous job of de-cluttering for over two weeks before I arrived on site. Over 80 bags total to Good Will or the trash collectors plus large items to the junk man and a local school.

The basement compromise pictures were after a lot of general tossing just to give us a place to start. To the left of the basement_before is the "rear" portion where camping gear was mostly stowed. The rear_compromise has a lot of it neatly stacked but that is not the final disposition!

Empty shelves! What a concept!!! We added a shelving unit for the left rear for the camping gear. We added bins on the right rear that hold lightweight soft things like camping blankets and dog blankets. We made sure to not block the window so the blanket shelves fit well there. The new shelving units were purchased from Ikea. The existing shelving in the main basement was also an Ikea purchase a few years ago.

The linen closet is a little over 4 feet wide inside with 4 shelves. Some items were tossed. We purchased some generic cream colored pillow cases to go with sheet sets that were lacking. The two room humidifiers were pulled from hiding places and stowed where they can be seen and thus remebered to be used. Off season, they fit here well.

The cllient's walk in closet had hanging bars running down both sides and space in the back with a deep wooden shelving unit. Some items were stored in plastic bins on a shelf above the left hanging rail. There were boxes of stuff on the floor and some electronic gear that didn't work anymore. The closet also housed cat litter boxes. Because clothes were hanging from both bars, you could not actually walk through the closet easily.

Because the client had done such a great job getting rid of no longer worn clothes, there was a lot of dresser drawer space available. So the remaining tee shirts in the closet were folded so that the pictures were visible and stowed in the dressers. Items hanging in plastic bags were consolidated into one large hanging unit. All hanging clothes were then put on the right rod. The left rod was now empty.

We purchased some shelving at Lowe's and placed them in the back of the closet. Rugs we found in the basement were placed and the litter boxes returned. Jigsaw puzzles were packed in XXL Zip Lock bags to keep them clean and neat. We used the now empty plastic garment bags to line the bottom shelves of the storage units to keep the litter dust from rising and coating the shelves. We also repurposed a cloth shower curtain (from the linen closet) and hung it from hanging bar to hanging bar to give the kitties some privacy in their boxes and to also cut down on the dust from the boxes moving foward onto clothes.

The before picture: An unused treadmill, piles of Search+Rescue items, other stuff and 2 file cabinets the client could not get to.
The after picture: The treadmill is being loved now by a neighbor. The Search+Rescue materials were sorted and organized into plastic bins that can be easily moved to the vehicle and stored in the basement with two other sorted bins of S+R items. The client can now get into both file cabinets!

Pet food was stored in a small area bound by two open doors. The basement has been known to flood a bit after heavy rains. With the newly emptied shelves nearby, all of the pet foor was easily stored high and dry.

For about $100, we purchased, then assembled, the white cabinet for the bathroom. There had been two small, open shelving units that afforded no privacy.

We moved those to the craft closet along with two others from the basement, stacked them and used them for craft projects and supplies. We repurposed some nice containers that had been underutilized to sort craft materials into paints, things that mark, things that get attached, materials and other categories. The Craft Closet has other spaces not visible in this photo where we better stored some items.

The cat needed a break from his work as supervisor. THe computer monitor made a nice heating pad for him.