“Some families are super organized,” Rachel said with a smile. “We are not that family.” The Brownings, who live in Boston, have three children, two dogs, and a very active life style. Their oldest son in very involved in baseball, while the youngest has karate. “All of our stuff – sports gear, camping equipment, the stuff we take with us down to the shore – was jumbled together in the garage for like forever.”

Then, last summer, Rachel’s husband Clement couldn’t find the family’s tent. “You can’t go camping without a tent,” Rachel said, “and we’d already told the kids we were going. So we wound up buying another tent – which actually worked out great, it was a very nice tent, but it was not cheap! – in order to make that weekend happen.”

“Of course when we got back,” Clement said, “I found our first tent like that.” He snapped his fingers. “That’s when I said we’ve got to get our lives organized better.”

At first the Rachel and Clement thought they could fix the challenge by just straightening out the garage, but it quickly became clear that wasn’t the case. “Too, too much stuff and not enough space,” Rachel said. “Clement actually wanted to expand the garage but we didn’t have the budget for that.”

“Remodeling the basement into an organized, easy to access storage space made a lot more sense,” Clement said. “Some of the stuff we’re holding onto only gets used once or twice a year – holiday decorations, our beach chairs – so it doesn’t necessarily need to be in the garage.”

Working with a Boston basement remodeling company, Clement and Rachel created an organized storage space in their basement. “Simply having walls put up, with some shelving and storage units installed, has made so much difference,” Rachel said. “Now everything has a place to be. When we want something, we know exactly where it is – so we don’t get stuck having to buy replacements we don’t actually need. Being organized saves money.”