I am in a similar situation. I cook upstairs and all my cleaning and storage of bottles, gear, etc happens upstairs. Once cooled, I pitch, and take 'er down. From there, nothing goes back upstairs until it's ready to go into the fridge for consumption. It's a little easier for me because I keg, but I could bottle in the basement just the same.
Downstairs, I lay out clean towels on all the work surfaces (i.e. top of the ice box) and work only on the known clean surfaces (towels). My carbuoys are fermented inside my ice box, so no dust is on the outside of them. While working, I cover all open containers with a towel to prevent airborne dust from settling into them as I rack, siphon, etc. It's probably overly paranoid, but IMHO there's just too much airborne dust, mold, and crap in an unfinished basement to leave a keg or carbuoy open to the air for 10-20 minutes.
While I may not re-climb the stairs, I carefully move my carbuoys about 6-8 ft during each rack, and I'm turning out non-filtered beer that is often as clear as a store bought.
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Originally Posted by the_Roqk
Or, you can transfer to a bottling bucket (complete with priming sugar), and then take it upstairs to bottle.
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If you MUST bottle upstairs, Roqk suggested the best compromise.