Emptying the basement

Since we are full-time homeworking we spend the biggest part of our day in our basement where our office space is.  The desks are great and comfortable but behind us is a mixture of old cupboards that Jan and I collected and moved from previous locations and addresses , added with the most simple wooden Ikea basement racks.  And then we've added 15 years of documents and mess in there in folders and boxes and you can imagine it is a bit of organised chaos in there. 

And so it's time to treat the basement more like a living space and we've ordered custom cabinets along all walls and above our desks, a sliding door to split Jan's office space from mine etc.  Quite a transformation because even after last spring's clean-up it's such a mix-match of racks and boxes. 

And hence we are in the midst of clean-up in all our free time in the weekends (that's why I get some more gaps here in my blog, since it cuts in my blogging time).  And it's quite a trip through memory lane to empty all boxes and racks. 


My elementary & high school tools

That have always moved with me from school to school or have been part of my desk equipment:  my most fancy calculator that can program, my childhood pencils that I've donated now to the children who have plenty...but I have survived decades with my aluminium box. 

My student and professional history

I found my high school diploma's, my degree from the music academy,  documentation from a university internship at BEKAERT,  my preperations for my thesis including telephone lists for my company surveys and all statistical tests etc...

There were my first contracts, pay sheets (which I threw out after some hesitation), project documentation, numerous obsulete training manuals, ... but also the documents about getting fired and outplacement documentation. So many memories to process... I must admit I had to go and take a walk after that. 

And there's memories to the World Jubilee, birth announcements, obituaries and other memories of important events in the life of family & friends. 

Creating a mess to clean-up

And the sorting and clean-up creates a bit of chaos of boxes being moved, more curver boxes getting bought, ... Old electro and binders etc...went to the thrift shop.  At the same time I ordered the children (just before Sinterklaas) to clean-up baby toys and baby books, which they strongly pointed out to their letter to Sinterklaas.  And Jan threw out half of our plastic boxes in the kitchen.   
Boxes get moved to the garage further in the city, which will be painfull to empty again later on. There is still so much left behind after our last massive renovations. Ooops.  So we'd better not turn it into our forgetting well over there. 

And so the basement goes from filled to chaos to a bit less filled but there's some more weekends work left. yeayyyy (sigh).