When nobody around you seems to measure up, it's time to check your yardstick. ~ Bill Lemley

Did you think this is a photo of our basement?

Nope.

This is.



We have been blessed with a very roomy 1100 square foot basement in our Michigan home.  Pictured here is the main part of the old-fashioned rec room.  Off to the left is another area that's part of the rec room, too.  It's empty outside of a hat rack on the wall.   There is a finished room that could be counted as another bedroom but I've designated that one for Dear Hubby's Rubbermaid storage bins full of hunting clothes and other paraphernalia.  He is doing a great job of keeping that in order.  No clutter, just bins stacked against the walls that he can rummage thru when he needs something.  I also have a big laundry room area where the furnace and water heater are.  There's a storage cubby under the stairs and a wall full of ceiling-to-floor cupboards.  I have never had so much inside storage space.  In the garage is another wall of ceiling-to-floor cupboards as well as a wall with triple-tier open shelves.  I never thought I'd see the day I'd have more storage space than I have stuff to fill it.

As to the first photo that I snitched off of Google images, that's pretty much how my Portland basement looked.  We had next-to-no closet space in that house.  No pantry and minimal cupboard space in the kitchen.  No linen closet.  Whatever needed to be stored was put in the unfinished basement.  Hardly any power outlets, for that matter.  Extension cords were my best friends.  Houses built in 1912 didn't need plug ins and closets.  There were very few electrical appliances and gadgets in the early part of the last century.  You had your Sunday-go-to-church outfit and a few other clothes and that was it.  No need for walk-in closets big enough to hide an army in.

I like organization.  I almost border on obsessive/compulsive when it comes to order.  Order makes me feel peaceful and less stressed.  Tranquil.  Chaos and messiness makes me feel anxious and uneasy.  I don't know why.  Does it hearken back to childhood issues?  Is it a control issue of some sort?   I'm "A place for everything, and everything in its place" sort of person.  I like knowing when I'm in need of a hammer I can go to a certain cupboard in the basement, open it up, and find the hammer there where it should be.  I like counters to be clean and uncluttered.  When I go to bed, I take dirty cups or glasses out to the kitchen.  I like waking up to a neat and orderly living room.  Does that make me obsessive?  Compulsive?  Or someone who just likes order?

Life has also blessed me with two packrats.  My Dear Hubby and my daughter.  I think in 38 years together I've done a good job at compromising with my husband.  In 35 years with my daughter, I learned to cast a blind eye as much as I could.  They are not me.  I can't make them be me, as much as I'd like them to be in this one area of life.  If only I could make them both realize how easy it is to just put away what they use.  Then they could find things.  They wouldn't be tearing around looking for things they just knew they'd put on the dresser or stuck in a drawer or basket.  My way of compromising is just standing back and letting them stew and worry.  It is not my problem.  I know where my stuff is.  Where it should be!

Oh well.  The good Lord made each of us individually with our quirks and likes and personalities.  We are who we are.  And I'm a neatnik.