Domino Effect Projects

We all have them.  Those projects that once started seem to affect so many other areas and make the work drag on much longer than expected.  The projects that (almost) make you wish you hadn't started them in the first place.  Has one come to mind for you?

This seems to happen to me often.  {Okay, so it doesn't so much happen to me as I cause it, but let's not nitpick.}  Another problem with this is I tend to drag bring my very patient husband in on the project.  

My most recent Domino Effect Project?  The kids' new closet.  While I'm glad the 2 big girls now have a closet big enough for them to grow into, it has caused so much more work for us than I thought it would.

Here's the chain of events.

In order to open the closet up to their room we had to empty said closet.  My bedroom when from something like this-

to looking like this-

^Notice the Pack-n-play in the pic?

Once we got the girls' clothes in the new closet, my room looked a little better.  

Okay, so it really isn't that much better, but that closet acted as a storage room for us.  So, now we had to figure out what to do with all the junk stuff we've been holding on to for no good reason.

Enter our basement.  Now, I'm extremely grateful to have this space.  If you don't have a good system of storing your stuff, thought, it will eventually look something like the pictures below.  Especially if you let the kids have free reign.

yes, that is a cabinet laying on the floor 

I've cleaned the space several times.  Unfortunately, my kids, like most, don't care to pick up after themselves, so it continues to get messy.

Another tile in the dominoes - Remember the pack-n-play in one of the pictures above?  In the middle of our closet project, I decided to move our youngest out of our room into a room of his own.  He now occupies what was our guest room.  But, what to do with the guest room furniture?  Yep, move it to the basement!

Sorry the door is in the way, but you get the idea.  It works well for us and our guest - as long as no one visits during the winter.

Previously, we had shelves along the wall the bed is now up against.  See?

 I got tired of cleaning up the kids' toys and took all the shelves down one day and moved all their toys to another area.  See them on the shelves against the concrete wall?

We have a strict rule in our house that the kids are not to go on the other side of the stud walls where my husbands tools are.  So, by default, the kids can no longer get toys out without our help.

Once the holidays started rolling around, so many things/projects were placed on hold.  I could only stand seeing a basement look like this for so long after the holidays were over, though.  And, poor Kevin had a couple of days off to help me.

 This was taken after we started working.  Has to look worse before it can look better, right?  UGH!  There were so many boxes full of books, it was ridiculous!

The shelves that once held the toys got reused in a new location.

Kevin using his hammer drill on the concrete wall.

Starting to fill up!

 Here it is full.  There is even stuff just sitting in front of the shelves because we ran out of room.  (Shameful!)  We put up some vapor barrier we had on hand from another house to help remind the kids not to go behind the walls.

Our basement is looking much better these days.  

 And all the storage space is full.

Wondering what the next domino tile to fall is going to be?  A YARD SALE!!!  We are going to be having one of the biggest 'I'm Not Having Anymore Kids' celebration yard sale ever!  I already have most of the stuff in the basement separated in 'keep' and 'sell' categories.  This decision does cause another domino to fall, though.  While I've gone through the basement, I still have the rest of the boxes in our bedroom, my kitchen and craft room to go through.

Bonus - cleaning up the basement will allow me to draw up detailed plans for transforming it into a functional finished living space.  Won't that be nice?  It should be completed about the time the kids are going off to college at the pace I move.

Do you have some dominoes falling?