Cleaning the Basement

I've been trying to spend some time each day working on cleaning out the basement in our house. I look around and can't figure out how so much stuff has accumulated down there. Granted, we purchased new furniture for our screened in porch last summer and we now have a massive pile of cushions stored there. But the rest of the junk - it just boggles my mind that we could have purchased so much.

So far, I've been concentrating on the three bookshelves. I have cleaned out all the old VHS tapes that I recorded of TV shows and have packed up all the Disney movies and any other pre-recorded tapes. I may try to sell them at a yard sale. I wish I could find a place to donate them. I realize that they are an outdated technology, but it pains me to think of just chucking them. Any ideas?

I've managed to put all the DVD boxed sets away and now have a pile of single movie DVD's to un-box and put into the nifty DVD storage units my husband bought me a few years ago. Another hour or so and that part of the basement cleanup should be done. But that still leaves the un-finished side of the basement - a much bigger task and one that will probably drive me nuts?