The Basement and Our Well-Being

Living in a such a small house, I am very grateful to have a basement.  We do have an attic, but it is very difficult to get to, harder to climate control, and not very big or safe for storage.  As such, our basement became our storage center, but also, I wanted to use it as secondary living space.  

In the past, we planned on either adding on to this cottage or moving.  Therefore, I kept pretty much everything so I would have it for that some day.  Unfortunately, that meant that the basement became a cluttered mess.  At worst, we pretty much just had narrow paths to the laundry area and hubby's man cave.  I had to climb over boxes to get to the pantry.  This became a trap for dampness, mold, mildew, and mouse infestations.  Embarrassingly gross and health damaging!!  

My house makes me sick.

I love my little house, but I found it strange that I would feel tired, anxious, and sickly at home, but if I left the house, I felt better.  My children would slug about the house, but suddenly become energized once they left.  A simple conclusion was that something in the house was taxing our immune systems.

My conclusion is the basement, and as I've been cleaning it out, I feel I am well verified, as I feel sickly as I move stuff out and the mold, mildew, dust, etc gets stirred up.  

The basement needs to breathe.  In fact, the whole house needs to breathe.  To breathe, it needs airflow and empty space.  To have empty space, it must be minimized.  

I invested in a good dehumidifier, too.  After last year's multiple system failures (washing machine, gray water drain, oil hot water boiler, hot water tank) at various times flooding the basement, and a wet spring and summer, the basement never had a chance to dry out.  So much stuff has endured damage, if not directly, indirectly from the dampness.  I've pulled board games out of their boxes only to find the game board covered in green fuzz!!  

The walls are getting bleached and repainted as I can.  Mostly, right now, I am creating airflow and empty space.  

The house already smells better.  

Getting rid of all the stuff has been easier because we concluded that we are indeed not going to add on or move.  If we do move, it'll likely be out of state and we're not going to drag all this stuff with us, anyway.  I have no reason to keep it.  

It's taking a while, especially as I (shamefully!) fill up my trash can so quickly.  (Yes, I do feel shame for adding to the landfill.  I wish I was more conscientious in the past.)  But, I am learning great lessons and will be a better person for it in the next 10 years.