True Confessions Wednesday: A Corner on the Market

True Confession #28: My basement could pass for an outpost of The Container Store. 

I'd like to say it all started when I retired and the leftovers from the organizer giveaways I did with my students made their way into my basement.

I'd like to say that, but I don't think it's entirely true. Bringing all of those things home simply put my existing container supply over the top. And my stint as a Thirty-One Gifts consultant did not make the piles any smaller.

We have lived in our house (a three bedroom cape cod) for almost 26 years. Many of the spaces in the house have changed over time, keeping pace with the life changes that have occurred. A guest room became a nursery, then a bedroom whose decor and storage grew and changed with its occupant. A downstairs bedroom became an office, then a catch-all space, then a playroom, and, finally, a family room. A side porch became an office.

Not only did the different versions of each of the rooms necessitate its own unique storage, but tastes changed over time as well. Plastic bins hidden behind closet doors didn't make the cut when storage came out of the closet and into the living space. Storage for toddler toys didn't do the trick for tween collections or the electronics that followed. And this afternoon, the young adult who inhabits what was once the nursery spent several hours trying to figure out where her college furniture will go when we bring it home in a few days.

Meanwhile, the usable castoffs have taken up residence -- and space -- in my basement. Bins of various sizes and colors, some with lids, some without, are stacked in a corner of my basement. A variety of leftover paper storage, cloth bins and various purses and tote bags inhabit other areas.

The good news is that if we ever need storage for, well, anything, we know just where to look. And it's free. Kinda.

The bad news is that it's most likely more than we will ever need. But, since it's not really taking up enough space to be bothersome, there it all stays.

The college graduate living upstairs will likely take some of it with her when she moves into an

The Container Store

apartment of her own -- or at least that's my current excuse for leaving it all as is. She's also going through a sell-the-old-stuff-online phase that may allow me to thin the collection a bit.

At some point, I'll have had enough and I'll sort through all of them (again) and decide what to keep, what to sell, and what to donate. But, until we can actually get the boxes of donations that are already down there out of the house, it feels futile. And, as is often the case, I'm sure that I'll need exactly the container I donated right after I give it away.

So for now, there they sit, gathering dust and waiting to be useful. My own little outpost of The Container Store, ready to corral some clutter.