Saturday, May 31, 2008

The Basement: Treasure or Terror?


The last two Saturdays I have spent most of my time cleaning our basement. This has turned into a huge production since the basement hasn't truly been cleaned from top to bottom since we moved in 8 years ago. Boxes have been moved, items have been juggled, and space has been made until there is no more left. Jim and I finally decided that it had to be completely cleaned, and that we need to have a garage sale.

The bad news is that I have found old bills that needed to be shredded going back to 1992. Crap. In and amongst all this shredding, I have found treasures left and right. I found several really cute baby pictures of my nephews, which reminded me why I think they are the most handsome boys ever. I also found old drinking and partying pictures from college. What I thought was really awesome back in the day makes me flinch a bit now, but I also have to acknowledge that it is part of who I was that makes me what I am today. I take great solace in the fact that I am fully clothed, if a bit inebriated, in all of these pictures. It helps remind me that when it comes to my wardrobe selections, I have always been a bit of a prude. Heh.

I also found some interesting comic-related items. Here is a sample list:

Avengers #401- bent to hell at the bottom of a box.
Azrael #19- not bagged or boarded, but in astoundingly good shape.
X-Factor #34- Angel doing the "Death" persona.
Fantastic Four #101- random. Odd that this was in with my old bills.
Marvel Knights Sketchbook- from an old Wizard.
Dawn #6- I already have a copy, so I can only figure this is for signing purposes.
Metallica comic book. Metal Dude!!!!
Several random Wizard posters from back in the day.
Riot Magazine #1- with a Joe Mad cover of the X-Men.
Wonder Woman: Amazonia. I always knew I had this but could never find it.

All this stuff was in random boxes covered by old bills and clippings. Nice.

Let this be a lesson to all you packrats like me. Don't let your clutter get to this point. It is a scary proposition. Disturbingly, it can also make a person feel like they have uncovered buried treasure.
I am glad we decided to clean the basement. It was a disaster waiting to happen, and I couldn't get any more long boxes down there. I counted 52 of them, and 7 short boxes. If I have any hope of going through my collection and getting it back down to a manageable size, this was the first, painful step.

What's in your basement?

5 comments:

Eaglewing said...

Nice "finds". I don't have anything in my basement - I live in a condo. A one bedroom apartment variety. Hence the reason why I can't collect long boxes of floppys, there'd be nowhere to put them. That's quite the collection you have there tho - 52 boxes! Have fun sorting through and finding "new" treasures.

Mag said...

I have packed boxes from at least three moves ago are still in the basement. (I know it means I can just get rid of them, but my inner packrat won't let me.) Plus books I moved down there over the winter and a huge pile of long & short boxes.

I'm in the same boat you were--the basement desperately needs to be cleaned.

Heidi Meeley said...

Eaglewing, I was pretty pleased to find that stuff, but very alarmed at how "lost" it had gotten. Bad Heidi!

Yep, it is pretty difficult to keep stuff in a basement when you have a condo!! LOL. You are very wie to focus on TPB's and GN's.

I have way too many comics. I am in shock. It should be interesting to see just what can stay and what needs to go!

Take care!

Heidi Meeley said...

Mag, the basement is just WAY too convenient to throw stuff in and ignore it, isn't it? I am really guilty of that, to the point where it was danger level nine! It has been awful to start with cleaning it, but I have finally started getting enough of the clutter organized or pitched so I can get a better idea of the disaster I am dealing with.

Being a packrat makes it really suck. I hate getting rid of stuff, and I need to convince myself, that like you, the basement is where stuff goes to die. LOL!

Swinebread said...

I've been cleaning too! I found a few items that were missing. Like Hypothetical Lizard #4