Basement From Hell

This morning when I went downstairs to do some laundry ("do some laundry") I was all of a sudden filled with an overwhelming feeling. It was the I-just-can't-take-it-anymore feeling. Our basement is the messiest, filthiest basement in all the world. I admit, I have not seen all the basements in the world, but this has definitely got to be the worst ever. It's bad. Really bad. Here is an actual conversation between me and my mother.
Mom: "Hey, Michelle, do you know where that one thing[I don't remember exactly what is was] is?"
Me: "It's in the basement."
Both: *look of fear and loathing*
Mom: "Oh well. I'll buy a new one."
So, yeah. It's bad.
Our basement is separated into three parts. Left of the stairs is the "storage area." This is the place where the big freezer lives and drips and where everything that "we might need someday" is stored.
The second section is the only part that is finished. At one time it looked really nice. My father does construction for a living. He drywalled and carpeted the whole area. Of course, it never leaked down there until he finished it. Now the walls are moldy and gross and the carpet is no longer gray, but multi-colored due to the mold and the heavy usage of bright-colored Playdough directly on the carpet*.
Anyway, the middle section was originally designed to be a bedroom. That never happened. It gradually morphed into "playroom" and now is "non-natural disaster." This is the place where all the toys and crap from the girls' room is dumped when cleaning the room. Betcha can't guess who usually cleans that room, can you? There is no floor in the basement. At least, that's what I thought before I started cleaning. Before cleaning, the basement was a sea (seriously! A sea!) of toys, papers, crayons, pencils, moldy books and other gross stuff including, but not limited to, mouse shit, clay and dirt.
The third section is the laundry room/Dad's "work area." Both are also used as storage areas because in my house there is an unlimited supply of storageable crap that we don't need at the moment, but will come in handy some day. We used to have a toilet down there from Grandma's house. Dad wanted to keep it since it was a very expensive stool and thought it might come in handy. Turns out that it did! He sold it to a lady for her rental house.
My task was a big one. I knew what I had to do. I was not looking forward to it, but the thought of being able to walk down there without screaming,"Ouch!! Damn it!!" the whole way to the laundry room was what kept me going.
I feel that I must add that I am highly allergic to the mold and, I think, everything else in the basement. I spent the whole day sneezing, coughing and wheezing after my last Benadryl tablet wore off. Ah, the smell of the basement on a beautiful day.
Did I mention that Mom was in Supreme Cleaning Mode today? I needed something to do, so that was another motivating factor.
I am not anywhere near done, but at least I can walk through there now. I even hooked up my old computer so the girls would free this one so I can use it (And they thought I did it to be nice!). I quickly ran out of toy receptacles, so I had to resort to piling the toys up against the wall on top of the full trash bins. Dad bought three ginormous trash bins to put toys in and I need about four more. So yeah...it's A LOT of toys. I had a very big breakthrough: They have way too may toys.

*The Playdough is never picked up. Never. That is one of the golden rules in the How to Be an Evil Daughter/Sister Manual : "Never pick up anything when you are done using it. Your parents and oldest sister are only here to be your personal maid/butler. They are paid good money and you would not want to take away from their income by picking up after yourselves, now would you?" I'm serious. It really says that. I've seen the manual. It's THICK!
Oh and something else about Playdough. You know how when you leave it out it gets all hard and dry? Not true in our basement. After being left out for many days or weeks it actually gets softer. How gross is that?!