Clearing a basement you have been avoiding

Basements collect the things nobody wanted to decide about, and then they add water and time. This isn't a sorting job so much as a sorting job with a hazard in it. Do the wet and moldy things first, because they spread to whatever is stacked next to them.

Get light and a path in before anything else

Two work lights and an extension cord change this job more than willpower does. Clear a walkway from the bottom of the stairs to the far wall, and keep it clear the whole time, because you'll be walking that path for days.

Gloves, boots, a mask and a roll of contractor bags. If the smell is strong, open a window and put a fan in it pulling air out of the room, and take breaks upstairs where the air is better.

Judge each box before you open it

Cardboard that has been wet is soft, stained along the bottom, and heavy in a bad way. If a box fails that check, don't open it in the house. Carry it outside and open it over a tarp, and expect the contents to be a loss.

Weight tells you a lot. A small heavy box is usually paper or hardware. A light one is often nothing at all. Either way you're deciding whether it's worth a trip up the stairs before you spend ten minutes on it.

Stage the piles at the stairs

Sorting in the middle of the room means carrying everything twice. Set up three spots at the foot of the stairs — keep, donate, gone — and move each thing to one of them the moment you decide. Then take one pile upstairs per trip.

Things that don't come back from a wet basement

• Cardboard boxes and the paper inside them
• Particle board shelves and cabinet backs
• Upholstered chairs, mattresses and rugs
• Leather shoes and jackets that sat damp
• Photo albums where the pages have stuck together

Then the shelves and the floor

Once the boxes are gone you can finally see the room. Empty the shelves, then the floor, then whatever is behind the shelves. Anything with a cord gets plugged in where it sits — if it doesn't run down there, it isn't a keep.

Old paint, chemicals and propane cylinders don't go in the trash. Find the household hazardous waste collection date before you load the car, because that date decides what else can leave this week.

Carry it out in small loads

Basement stairs are why people quit halfway. Take a load up every single time you go, and never carry something so big you can't see your feet. Move the keep pile to a dry room upstairs the same day, or it will be back in the basement by spring.

The mistake is opening the moldy box to see if it's worth saving. Once mold is in paper and fabric, it's in them. Bag it, carry it out, decide outside, and don't stack the keep pile back down there while you finish the rest of the house.