Mice in the basement

I discovered late on Friday when I finally got around to getting the Christmas decorations out that we had mice in the basement. They were enticed there by my youngest storing bird seed. Bird seed and mouse droppings mingled. All the stockings had to be washed. Several hand made decorations from long ago Christmases had to be tossed.
What is worse the mice had made nests in several boxes of clothes and old papers. I had carefully stored stuffed animals, dresses I had made for my daughter when ...