operation: basement, day 1

today, we began our biggest minimalization effort to date – our basement/toy room.  i included some panoramic photos of the room to show you some “before” pictures.  i should say that our basement toy room doesn’t typically look this bad.  it has taken on some extra weight during our minimalizing efforts upstairs as the temporary holding cell for some of the items that landed in the “relocate” pile.  regardless, you can tell it’s no small project.

today was our first day and very effective.  we removed many of the large items that were taking up space (foosball table, cd shelves, etc.).  we began heavy sorting of cds, movies, books, and definitely toys.  when going through our stuff, i typically have three piles (throw away, keep, sell on ebay). 

and i should mention that i am super-proud of my five-year old son.  we certainly wanted him to play a part in the purging of his toys and we weren’t sure what to expect.  he did great – actually, we were humbled to see his ability to part with his possessions.  at one point, he even made up a song about sorting out toys which included the line, “pick your toys, sort them out, and play with them one last time…”

i wish the day was longer so that we could have accomplished more, but we took some time this evening to play monopoly jr. with my son and “baby” with my 2-year old daughter… and the toy room project will take the back-burner for a few days as i do some traveling for work.

but the end product will feature less furniture, more storage, and new paint.  i’ll keep you posted.