Yesterday, against my better judgement, I forced the family not to go to the beach, but instead tackle the daunting task that is our basement. We rented this house with the intention of creating a play area in the dungeon-like basement. Then the movers loaded everything in exactly the opposite of the way I instructed and we had six foot high walls of stuff that we had to get through just to see the side that we wanted to use. I have had to snake my way through the maze just to get to the washing machine. No one was allowed down there without shoes.
It was daunting, and over the last few months we (and by we I mean I) have shifted, purged, trashed, donated and recycled just enough that we maybe could move around the remaining contents-Tetris style-to create a play area.
I knew with school ending and the reality that every day is not sunny and beachy, I would need a place for these boys (and often girl) to be loud and wrestle and dump legos and jump on couches without me seeing them, or else I might go insane and they might be dangled from second story windows (oh, not really but you get the idea right?).
So yesterday we shifted and moved and stacked and unpacked. It was long, hard, hot work but in the end it was totally worth every second. It was like Christmas for the kids, who rediscovered boxes of previously packed toys (always a lesson in what you can live without). For my husband and I-we can now reach the pantry cabinet that was buried beneath golf clubs and holiday decor boxes. Now we can stop storing the jumbo paper towels in our dining room. We also reclaimed our living room television and our nice furniture is no longer gym equipment. Best of all, when the wrestling begins we can shout, “go to the basement” and know our kids are safe and our mind sound. It isn’t pretty, but it is functional and isn’t that what life is all about in a house full of kids?
Viva la basement!
