I organize, therefore I am

There are many reasons I organize, but here are my top 5:

I like things to visually be in order, it's calming.
It's easier to put things back in their place and faster to find things.
It keeps excess out of my life with a constant purging cycle.
It makes me happy to put things in a row.
I'm an organizing junkie and bins are my drug.

But honestly, I have a PASSION for organization. I offer to organize my friends closets, who does that? Every shelf, drawer, closet, pile in my house is organized. This skill came in uber handy when we found ourselves with 500 sqft of living space, and it's just as relevant now as we spread out a bit more.

So when my basement storage was starting to just bug me, I gave it a makeover. What sealed the deal for me was Home Depot's storage bins on clearance for $2 AND in cute colors. Yes, please. They fit perfect in my wire shelves from Target. Bonus! Here's your nasty before picture:

This project took me about 3 hours total, but I broke it up between a couple of days. First I had my bins handy, and I made labels for each room. Once those rooms have completed the construction phase I'll be able to unpack. For now, they're residing in the basement and I need to find things on random occasions. Labels make life easier.

Now I've started to unpack all my old bins and reorganize them into new rockstar labeled ones. I've also purchased one more shelving unit which means i've outgrown the wall. Guess i'll move things to the other wall. Perfect. Boy do I have a lot of frames...

So here's the finished clutter-free organized project. I still have a lot of smaller bins/boxes that are empty, which is a good thing I suppose, it means there's a little room for growth down here. Those winter items will definitely fill that up later.

My grand total cost is: $120 on wire shelves from Target {$40 a piece x3, sturdy, easy to assemble, highly recommended}, $20 worth of new bins, $6 for two collapsible crates. $146 dollars. Not too shabby for ease of use and an organized basement...