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You are here: Home / Organizing / How to Organize an Unfinished Basement

How to Organize an Unfinished Basement

June 1, 2015 By Karen Cooper Leave a Comment

Let’s be honest: unfinished basements tend to be, well, scary. And, if they’re a mess, they’re even more scary! But basements – even when unfinished – make good storage areas. Our 1929 house has an unfinished basement and, when we moved in, we ended up putting a lot of stuff down there to store. Today, I’m going to show you how to organize an unfinished basement – even if it does seem scary, at least at first.

Just to show you the mess that was, here’s video evidence of the “before”:

https://www.dogsdonteatpizza.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/basement-before-video.mp4

I know what you’re thinking: “Yikes.” ‘Cuz that’s what I was thinking.

The thing is: our attic is great, but it has pull-down ladder-type stairs. That makes it hard to put heavy things in the attic. Also, it means pulling down the door, pulling down the ladder, and having a spotter to put anything in storage up there. In contrast, the basement has actual stairs, and all you have to do to go down there is open a door.

And that’s probably why the basement ended up a mess. We just kept putting stuff down there until we ran out of space. It needed a good organizing!

So, one rainy day, I decided to tackle organizing the basement. I used my favorite tip for organizing: breaking the space into zones. I broke the kitchen into cooking zones here and organized the pantry in our old house into zones, too, here. It made sense to do it down in the basement, too. I knew I needed room for the following stuff:

  • Paint – I was storing some of it in the shed outside and some of it in the house, but the paint in the shed didn’t do well with the cold winter we had. So, I decided to move all the paint to the house, where the temperatures fluctuated less and thus wouldn’t kill the paint. Bonus: moving the paint to the basement made sense because it’s closer to where I actually use the paint (either inside or, for spray paint, in our garage)!
  • Doors – our house came with a bunch of random old doors that I refuse to get rid of, plus the pantry doors I removed in our kitchen (see this post for why I removed the pantry doors and put up a sliding door instead).
  • Shelves – extra shelves from closets and other projects.
  • Cabinets – I kept the cabinets from the kitchen remodel, and they are stored down here.
  • Magazines – Dear Husband saves every copy of Rolling Stone magazine he gets and has done so as long as I’ve known him. There are many. They are in the basement.
  • Holiday decor – Plastic tubs, organized by holiday, plus our artificial Christmas tree.

I bought some shelving units to organize the stuff, put the shelves together, and got to work. I can’t believe how much more space we have, now that all the stuff in there is organized! Check it out:

Using shelves to organize an unfinished basement - thediybungalow.com

You can actually see the floor! (Not sure if that’s a good thing, but there it is.)

Using “zones,” I worked my way around the room, deciding what would go where based on where I might use the materials and, honestly, how much things weighed (more on that in a sec…).

I knew that I’d want the paint and other DIY materials near the work table, where I might use it. So, that’s where I started.

Putting things near where I use them as how to organize an unfinished basement - thediybungalow.com

There’s the work table. Always good to start with what you know you need. I put the paint and related stuff (wood filler, spackling) next to the work table.

Paint storage in how to organize an unfinished basement - thediybungalow.com

I put the heaviest stuff on the bottom shelf; here, that’s tile and grout. Then the next two shelves up have paint, and the top shelf has a container of extra parts, plus more paint and other stuff.

I also wanted to keep the holiday stuff together, and knew that the biggest area that was open – in which to put the artificial Christmas tree – was near the paint shelves. So, I put the next shelf unit next to the paint and put the holiday buckets o’ stuff there.

Keeping holiday decorations together in how to organize an unfinished basement - thediybungalow.com

The red thing to the left of the pole there is the tree. I didn’t photograph it because, well, it isn’t much to look at in the red storage bag.

I put the heavy stuff near the stairs.

Put heavier items near the stairs so they are easier to move in how to organize an unfinished basement - thediybungalow.com

The magazines are in those plastic bins, and the kitchen cabinets are next to them. Why did I put this stuff by the stairs? First, these things are HEAVY. If I needed to lug any of these things upstairs, it’d be the shortest trip with this heavy stuff! Second, since Dear Husband gets a new Rolling Stone each month, it made sense to put the storage of those magazines near the stairs, so that he’s more likely to just run down the stairs and put the latest issue in the bin.

Doors and shelves storage for how to organize an unfinished basement - thediybungalow.com

Yes, that’s the sliding door from the kitchen pantry. I removed it when I painted the kitchen’s walls and trim. Not sure if it’s going back; I kind of like not having a door there.

Doors and shelves are also heavy, so they went between the workbench, where I might use them, and the stairs.

Hank waiting patiently as I organize the unfinished basement - thediybungalow.com

My trusted helper, waiting for me at the top of the stairs. (I don’t allow him in the basement.)

Not only is the basement more organized now, but it’s much less scary.

How to organize an unfinished basement - find this post and more organization ideas and tips at thediybungalow.com

So, how do you organize an unfinished basement?

  1. Think about zones. What do you have down there? Can you group and store like things together? Can you put the stuff near where you might need it, or near where it would be most useful?
  2. Once you know what you need to organize, buy any supplies you need: shelves, bins, boxes, etc. Also, a label-maker is a wonderful thing. Make sure you label anything that’s in a box or bin so you know what’s in there, even (or especially) if you can’t see inside.
  3. Start where you want or need to put something. In my basement, it was the work table – I wanted the paint and related supplies near that work table.
  4. Move around the room until you’ve got zones for each grouping of stuff.
  5. Recycle, toss, or donate anything you don’t need or want.
  6. Stand back and admire your newly organized space!

What area of your home needs organizing? Share in the comments below.

How to organize an unfinished basement - find this project and more organization ideas and tips at thediybungalow.com

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Filed Under: Cleaning, Organizing Tagged With: basement Leave a Comment

About Karen Cooper

Hi! I'm Karen. I call myself a “recovering lawyer” - I traded in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY adventures. Join me for DIY, home decorating, repurposing and upcycling, and organizing projects and tips as I transform a 1929 Tudor bungalow into our home. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home.

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Hi! I’m Karen. I call myself a “recovering lawyer,” because I turned in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY. This blog is all about DIY, home decorating, repurposing and upcycling, and organization. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home.




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About Karen

A "recovering lawyer," I turned in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home. Read More…

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