Organize your Garage and Bring the Car In Out of the Cold!
The main principle in organizing your garage is to get as much as possible off the floor, so that there’s room to drive the car in.
But maybe your garage is like my neighbor’s: packed to the roof with boxes, skis, bikes, toys, spare tires, tarps, plant pots, bales of peat, a couple of ramps for car maintenance, camping gear, rakes, shovels, a lawnmower, construction debris from the last DIY project, two weedwhackers (one operating, one not)… well, I could go on, but you get the picture. If the space is bursting at the seams, organizing isn’t going to make room for the car unless you get rid of some of that stuff.
What can go? Try these candidates:
- Recycling waiting to go (make it so!)
- Garbage and debris ditto
- Tires, wheels and parts from previous vehicles
- Outgrown bikes, scooters and other wheeled toys
- Broken items waiting to be fixed (will they ever really be?)
- Half-empty containers of garden chemicals you never use any more (check for household chemical safe disposal methods in your area)
- Punctured balls and other inflatables
- Worn and battered garden furniture
- Building materials deteriorated from bad storage (frozen paint, damp drywall, etc.)
- Leaky tents, worn-through tarps, empty propane cylinders
- Broken and rusty tools you’ll never use again
- Chipped or ugly garden pots
- Hoses that leak (but aren’t intended to!)
- Duplicate machines
Those are the no-brainers, of course. There are more difficult decisions to be made next. Maybe skiing was your great love (until your twin daughters arrived), but you haven’t skied now in 5 years and there are still 3 pairs of skis stacked in the garage, along with poles and boots. It can be hard to let go of stuff which has emotional strings and hopes from the past attached.
There are several resources available online to help you get over those humps and make your garage decluttering and organizing a success. Check them out - and get started!
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