Winter Is My Favorite Time to Organize the Basement — Here’s Why

Written by

Allison Ditmer
Allison Ditmer
Allison is a writer and mother of two living in Ohio. Her writing is focused around self-improvement, mental health, life lessons, and parenting all with one purpose: to live a fulfilled life. When she's not writing she's likely throwing a baseball in the front yard with her son…read more
published Jan 13, 2023
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finished basement
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I live in the Midwest, and other than the occasional sunshine and snow, I end up spending most of my time indoors during the winter. As I look for ways to declutter after the holidays, I use these colder months to my advantage. In addition to embracing all things cozy in my home, I also like to read up on tips from Marie Kondo’s new book. But when I’m not doing that, a big project I like to tackle each winter is organizing my basement.

Once I get motivated, I find that organizing and cleaning my home brings me a lot of joy, and that’s particularly important in the winter when the gray skies can really dampen my mood. Finding activities inside that get me moving not only helps me feel like I’m ticking off one more to-do, but the physical activity releases happy endorphins that benefit my family around me too. When I’m happy, they feel it. My attitude becomes contagious in a good way.

My first order of business when tackling the basement is setting aside any items I no longer want. This includes toys, unwanted decorations, or anything else. I’m learning how beneficial your local Buy Nothing group can be in decluttering and motivating you to stay organized. All I have to do is list any unwanted item I have, sit it on my porch, and someone comes to pick it up with no problem.

After making a pile of unwanted things, I challenge myself to see how I can reorganize existing storage containers to fit more in them to get things off the floor. Sadly, there are always more things and boxes taking up floor space than I like. And this can take some time. Sometimes I break it up by themes: going through all things Christmas, and then childhood items I want my kids to keep. There’s always the outdoor furniture and hiking supplies to try to condense as well.

Sometimes while organizing you come across items you want to set aside to have a yard sale in the spring. Designating a basement corner and making an organized pile allows you to see what you have and what you can tag and price ahead of time. If you’re indoors anyway, this is a great project to keep you busy. If yard sales aren’t your thing, you can always look at posting them online to sell too. 

Whether you give away or sell items, your end result is a decluttered and more organized basement space. Then when warmer weather comes around, you’re ready to get outside to focus on some new outdoor DIY projects.