Progress

So the other day I posted "before" photos of my messy basement.  Interestingly, another blogger I read regularly has decided to declutter and beautify her house, too.  Hers is a little more on the aesthetic and artistic side as opposed to my simple pragmatism, but it's nice to know I'm not the only one.

Well, the basement isn't done yet.  It may never be done, as a matter of fact.  But the recycling is done and a lot of the basement has been swept (yick) and cleaned up (check out the pile of dirt and dust in the lower left):

For the first time in 5 1/2 years, I completely cleaned out under the stairs:

And put away the storm window that is supposed to be getting glazed but was actually just blocking our way to the furnace:

So it's getting there, but still tons more to do.  I'm going for tidy right now, and then I'll start in on clearing out all the boxes full of files and such and organizing the shelves.  Fortunately, the basement is not finished and is mostly just for storage and laundry - so no one else has to see it and I'm not under any time constraints - aside from wanting it done.