Our Basement Part 2: Does it look like I own a paint store?

This is the shelf AFTER I got rid of the old paint cans. The top shelf is exterior paint and the bottom shelf is interior.

So it is time for some more embarrassing photos of the house! Believe it or not I just got rid of about 12 oil based paint cans and miscellaneous chemicals today (before these photos were taken). It was hazardous waste drop off day at one of the local parks. If I had been more organized I would have dropped off some old computer equipment too, but I was proud of myself for at least getting rid of some gross old paint cans. Since we are now trying to deal more proactively with our basement (which is putting a damper on the master bedroom work) I decided it was time to spend a couple of hours sorting through the paint. So on Sunday I spent the time while Maisie was napping trying to get rid of some of the paint. It doesn’t help that we have 6 7 colors of paint on the exterior of the house. We also had left over paint from the “not quite right” color selections. Plus we have matching stain from the garage and shed. As a side note, I guess you can see our preferred exterior paint provider. I love my MAB exterior paint. MAB is now owned by Sherwin Williams, and I am waiting for them to close my local MAB store (where there is a Sherwin Williams only a couple of blocks away). Then I won’t be able to get my beloved Seashore paint! Our whole exterior is painted in the seashore paint. You can see that I am not as loyal with my interior paint. Most of the time for that I am lazy and hop over to the local Home Depot.  For our next painting project I am looking forward to trying the relatively new Behr Ultra (primer and paint in one with low VOC).

Pile of latex paint cans waiting to be dried out for the garbage.

Latex Paint Cans drying out on the steps to the basement so that they can be thrown out (don't you just love astroturf).

The pile on the floor is the paint that will be next to be set out for drying and throwing out. I am currently using the back steps to the basement. These are covered by a plywood door (to keep unsuspecting animals from investigating) but won’t be offgassing into the house. Hopefully these will be dry for next week’s garbage. If not I may need to resort to the kitty litter method, which involves pouring the old latex paint into a cardboard box with a bunch of kitty litter to help it dry out more quickly. So far I think most of this paint will dry on its own. A lot of it is quite old, so the drying process started long ago!

I did manage to combine a bunch of the exterior paint cans. Because of the complicated house paint scheme we ended up with at least 2 partially opened cans of each of the main colors. Fortunately now that has been compressed and now I will be able to find each color more easily for projects like the porch swing.

Paint Sample Reference from www.domestically-speaking.com

I also have plans of putting together a couple of rings of paint sticks containing all of the interior and exterior paint colors, for handy reference. Kind of like this one I found on Pinterest which was from Domestically Speaking.