Our Basement Storage Racks

Yesterday I left off our basement progress with a very painted concrete floor.  Well, it is time to turn this space back into a storage area.  And boy did we need it….we have loads of storage bins for holidays.

But first – the mandatory explanation….I know most of you have heard this….we have friends that recently moved into our basement….they sold their own house in record time and don’t have a new place yet….so we offered up our basement as a temporary solution and they said yes….but that meant we had a major clean-up effort and plans to make this place ready for a family of five.  Part of those plans is to take this back hallway and split it in two….one half for us and one half for our friends.  We already cleaned it all out and painted the floors and now it was time to move every box back in.

But first…the partition.  This divider has played a role in a ton of major events….we should name it Dan or something because it is a part of our family.  It started out as a giant pallet that I had Jeremy dig out of my parent’s neighbors dumpster.  We dragged it home and used it as a ‘farm yard fence’ for Will’s first birthday.  Then my sister and her then fiancé converted it to platform for their wedding….they literally said their vows on top of Dan.  And then we used it as a backdrop for a ton of different parties (here’s an example) and to block a room that was holding yard sale stuff.  And now it lives in the middle of our storage hall.  Everything before the divider we are emptying out and we are doing hookups for a washer and dryer as well as adding a few storage cabinets up top.   Everything after the divider we are organizing and using for our personal storage.

For the racks, I decided that we didn’t have time to build custom storage.  I know that any type of DIY shelving will cost about $50 a unit plus the time to plan, photograph, and actually cut, sand and build the rack.  I could have saved money in this instance but glad we just shelled out the dough for four of these Muscle Racks because we are in a time crunch. They were on sale for $69 and are perfect for the storage we need (aka need to hold a bajillion pounds).

Since they are boltless, all you need is a soft mallet to assemble.  You also need this when disciplining your four year old.  KIDDING.

It takes some practice to get the shelf height the way you want but it’s super easy.  So easy in fact that I did all four racks by myself! Don’t judge the shwoot (sweat pant suit) that I am wearing…..I have to do this after the kids go down and forgive me for putting my rear end right into the camera.

After they were strategically placed, we brought in all the bins and all our other odd shaped items (like our christmas trees that we put in the foyer, our christmas tree base and random dish ware.

Most of our bins are color coded….green and red are obviously Christmas, gray bins are fall/autumn/thanksgiving/halloween and there are two big bins of costumes (we do costumes a lot for random reasons so most people probably don’t need two giant bins of just adult costumes but we are weirdos like that) and the rest of the bins are labeled accordingly.

I tried to make sure all the groups could stay together so this area over here is summer stuff and white bins have additional entertaining items.  I have thirty matching navy tablecloths that we use every year for church events, family events, etc. so it’s nice to have a place to stash them all together.

The Pottery Barn box holds our Christmas tree branches.  They hang on the base and we found this box is the perfect fit.  We’ve used it for at least five years now and I would be super disappointed if anything happened to that thing.

On this side we have some more Christmas, a stash of wreaths and a costume box.  Between the rack and the furnace is our Christmas tree base.

The biggest load is near the doorway.  The top shelf is Christmas and fall (in the gray), then we have a shelf of Valentines day and party stuff along with more entertaining items.  Below that is our Star Wars box (don’t ask), Easter decor, and then more Christmas.  Next is a shelf that has our tent, another small white Christmas tree (we are starting to sound like the Griswold’s), glassware and chafing dishes.  Then the bottom has fall decorating items (dude, pumpkins take up a lot of room!).

Each box is easily labeled.  I just got some packs of those Martha Stewart labels from Staples…they remove if I need but are not gonna smudge.

I think they are a great size for these bins because I don’t want to take up a ton of room or label every single thing inside.  I just want to know the basics.

So that is our new storage area.  Isn’t it so tidy and great?!  I feel so accomplished down there!  Now if only my linen closet looked the same.  That thing looked like I locked a grandma with knitting needles inside!  Ha!

I do have more posts for you guys in the basement before a little break….we have to share our kitchen plans and then some more technical stuff like how Jeremy did the laundry room hookups and ran the electrical and plumbing.  I am so proud of that man.  And love that he is so motivated to get these spaces done…..it’s the best feeling in the world.  Well, second to the feeling of organization 🙂