Alexandra Ramirez
Why do so many garages tend to become a dumping ground for our unwanted or unneeded belongings? Many households long to park their vehicles in the garage but cannot do so because it is so full of “junk.” If that sounds like your household, summer is a great time to make a change in your situation!
Last year, I worked with a client whose goal was to park two vehicles in their two-car garage. Before we started on the organization project, they were only able to store one vehicle in the garage because the other stall was filled completely with items from finishing their basement. I am happy to announce that after several sweaty days, we had the space cleared out and two cars in the garage again.
5 Tips for Organizing Your Garage:
1. Take advantage of your driveway space to spread out. However, if you only have limited time available to work each day, don’t pull everything out at once. You will become overwhelmed and may just throw it all back in the garage at the end of the day and never come back. Pull out a little bit at a time to sort through. (If you lack motivation or tend to get overwhelmed easily, hiring a professional organizer would be a great idea.)
2. Have a garbage bag for tossing garbage and junk, a box for donations (those items that are in good shape but are no longer needed or wanted), a box for items that can be relocated somewhere else within your home, and a box for those items you want to keep in the garage. I encourage clients to load up their vehicle with their donations at the end of each work session and take them to their charity of choice that day or at least before the next organizing session. Also, take the items from the “relocating” box and put them in their designated spot elsewhere. It really helps you see that you are making progress if the items are totally gone.
3. The bigger chunks of time that you can work the better because once you get in a groove of tossing and purging items, it really speeds up the process. But if you have only little bits of time, take advantage of what time you do have. Sort one box or clear a tiny area; a little bit here and there really adds up over time. Stick with it! You can do it.
4. I strongly encourage you to touch every single item in your garage. If you don’t, you will most likely hold onto items that don’t necessarily need to be kept, and you will not even know that you own those items, so they will never get used.
5. After eliminating everything but the items you are keeping comes the fun of organizing. Storage will have to be addressed, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. It is best to get as much as possible up off the floor so you can create more space for vehicles. If you have the funds, buying overhead storage is a great idea to store bigger items that aren’t used regularly. I strongly encourage only storing items that are used outside in the garage and creating zones based on what the items are used for. Some examples for zones are gardening, automotive, sports/toys, lawn care, and a place for your trash and recycling cans.
Article written by Angie Schwartz from AimToBeOrganized.com
