Confessions of a Pack Rat

We have decided to try and clear out our basement a bit so that we can fit the baby stuff that Ezra's already outgrown down there. Before we started I couldn't remember what we'd put down there so I figured we could be ruthless and just get rid of it unless it had real sentimental value.

When I went down there, here's some of what I found:


Dave's old office chair, which we removed when his office became Ezra's room and the computer was relegated to a corner of the dining room. It's way too much the worse for wear to donate I think (note duct tape holding the padded arms on).

The door to the dining room, which we removed to allow the computer to sit behind it.


Old lamps and the crutches Dave needed when he sprained his ankle playing soccer for the first time in 10 years (we're actually going to keep them because they came in handy when Dave broke his toe kicking the car that had just hit him on his bike a few years later).

Dead dryer that came with the house and died two years after we moved in. I think they must have assembled it in the basement because it won't fit up the stairs and there's no other way out or in. We had to move the new washer and dryer onto the main floor last fall, which has actually been great since Ezra was born.


(Sorry the photo is sideways) My grandpa's old headboard and footboard. The frame broke shortly after we started sleeping in it though and we sank to the floor. Also in the picture, suitcases that were relegated to the basement after my parents gave us a new set to go to South Africa with. Undecided about what to do with these. And Dave's roller blades, which he was wearing when he got up the courage to give me his phone number (but that's another story).

Apartment sized washer that still works but we stopped using it when the dryer died and we decided to buy a whole new set. The matching dryer is somewhere in the basement but not pictured. My parents have said they'd like them for the cottage. Seen with an old monitor (which Dave is keeping for when he sets up his own network again), photographic paper (which I'll donate to the fine arts department at the U of Guelph) that I haven't used since 2002 and bought in 1999, and tripod that we'll keep.

Funky, froggy shower curtain that came with the place and I thought there might be a way to make it less disgusting and use again but has just sat in the basement. It's underneath the drop cloth we use for painting.

70s chairs that were in my parents' cottage for years but that I had to have when they got new ones. The were replaced by cooler, silver, sparkly 50s chairs that were given to us along with a funky raspberry formica table. Our less-cool plaid formica table is also in the basement but I'm not sure what to do with the table and chairs. I need to know they're going to a good home so I think I will hold onto them a bit longer. Also pictured: dead printer that one of us thought we might be able to fix, the bike rack for the car, and the empty box our modem came in. Dave insists on keeping empty computer boxes in case we need to move his hardware.

What's in your basement?