My husband and I each have a basement! Mine is accessed from the kitchen and the patio. His is under the family room and can only be entered from outside. I periodically go down to mine and clean off a shelf or two and donate/discard. His is for storage of lawn and patio equipment. We have nice new deck furniture which will have to go there for the winter. The problem is that this space is full of junk, some from the previous owner. My proposal is that every Tuesday, trash night, we each make one trip from the basement with junk. We have done so for 3 weeks, and already I see a difference. We have been especially lucky with metal, old refrigerator grates, bike racks, dishwasher door, old rusted Tonka trucks (the boys are 46, 43, and 37 and NEVER lived in this house!). Metal scrappers pick this stuff up; in fact very little of what we put out has gone in the landfill. It takes us 5 minutes and I hope by winter that we have the space to store our furniture.