Week #1, Basement Storage "After"

I can't wait to show you my reveal!  In case you didn't see my before pictures or "plan of attack" posted Friday, you'll want to see that here.  The next step of orgjunkie's P-R-O-C-E-S-S is REMOVE, so I took everything out and started with a blank slate. 

Now, what to put put back in!  I have this new freezer that needed to go in this space, so I put it in first!  I also purchased these brown shelves from a military mom for $10 and couldn't believe that they both fit!  I still have more to put in, so I don't know that they will stay, but I loved that they fit so perfectly.   

By the way, here is the pile of stuff that used to be inside this space:

The next step is where I spent the bulk of my time.  "O" is for Organize into piles.  This was going pretty smoothly until I came to this 3-drawer container.  I was stuck, so I slept on it: 

When I woke the next morning, I thought to go back and read the PROCESS again.  I realized that while I was working the PROCESS in the room,  I had not worked the PROCESS with this bin.  I had skipped "R"-I hadn't removed everything!  I promptly corrected that: 

It wasn't really fun dealing with the little things (so tedious), but I found a place for everything and threw away plenty.  For the entire space, I purged a trash bag worth of items and a broken Christmas box: 

Here are all my piles.  Under the picture I have listed from left to right what they are and where they have been relocated to:

• Halloween, Christmas, and Easter boxes went to the outside storage
• Black crate, nebulizer, and box underneath went to Samantha's room
• Black bag in front of that box went to the top shelf of the coat closet
• Wicker basket went to Timothy's room
• Electronics went to entertainment armoir in living room
• Tools went to the garage
• Luggage carrier and baby gates went to a specific area in garage designated to sell or donate
• Card tables went back into basement storage
• Sealed clothes went to top shelf of the laundry room

Next I needed to "Containerize" or find storage solutions.  As you can see this space already had several containers.  In fact, look at how many empty containers I had leftover!

There were 3 container choices I made:

1. The most important container I needed was the shelving to place my school and craft supplies on.  I'll talk more about my decision making process on that tomorrow, but the final conclusion was one tall bookcase. 
2. The pink caboodle pictured previously housed our craft paint and brushes.  However, a mom was selling a plastic bag full of those items at a garage sale for $5, so I needed a larger bin.  You'll see that on the top shelf of the final picture.  Now my cute caboodle is empty and any recommendations on what do with it would be greatly appreciated!
3. Once we put all the tools in a tub, we realized we needed one large tool box, which I picked up at Wal-mart last night.  Here's my hubby hard at work doing that:

I feel like it will take me some time using the new system to Evaluate and Solve/Simplify, but I tell you what...I sure am Smiling!  All of the kids crafts supplies, games, and my teacher books fit with room to spare!  (I just realized I forgot to adjust the shelves, but I'll chalk that up to an entire house of sick people.)  I just love it.  Do you have any ways I could make the space even better?  I would love to hear them!