The rest of the rooms are veins off the main artery.
By Ann Springer
If your garage is well organized, the rest of your home will be, too. Ideally, plastic Easter eggs would end up in a labeled box tucked away on a shelf in the garage instead of being shoved betwixt vases and plant food underneath the kitchen sink.
In most homes this is typically not the case. Instead of storing coats and shoes in an entryway coat closet, people will store boxes of Christmas decorations there. The excuse? There’s no room in the garage. Where are the coats and shoes? On the floor or hanging over a chair. What about the garage? It’s full to the brim with mystery boxes and items no one has touched in years because it’s a space where everyone piles items.
Instead of running in fear, it’s time to administer a little CPR to the garage and get the blood circulating once again throughout the house.
Here are a few tips to organizing a garage:
Set a date. Commit to a date when you will spend the day clearing out every item in the garage. Give yourself a nice reward when you’re done like going out to dinner (you’ll likely be exhausted, so go ahead and splurge by relaxing when you’re done).
De-clutter. Open the mystery boxes, inspect the tools for rust, and put every single item into one of four piles: 1) keep it 2) give it away 3) sell it or 4) throw it away. The more realistic you are about what you need to part with, the more you can really make headway on your garage being used for its true purpose.
Designate zones. Grouping your items you’d like to keep into zones can help you know where to put it back. Common garage zones include areas for the cars, sporting goods, lawn and garden items, holiday items, and tools. Use large plastic bins and a label maker to keep like items together and then you can easily access all of your items as needed. Be sure to label the large bins on at least two sides so you can see it no matter how you stack it.
Use every inch. A garage is intended primarily to be the home for family vehicles. It is possible to park a car or two inside the garage and store a few items as well. Consider installing overhead storage bins, wall shelving, bike storage systems, and hooks in your garage to use every inch of available storage space. There are a ton of great options out there for maximizing storage space. Check out stores from Target to Home Depot to say good-bye to the chaos and hello to an orderly storage space. Low on cash? Use the money from your garage sale to pay for the new storage systems.
Maintain the order. Once you’ve spent the time and invested your energy to tidy up the garage, don’t let it become a dumping ground again. It’s easy to let it go since guests don’t see it but don’t let that be an excuse for not returning items to their proper place. Remember the garage is the heart of the home, so if you let it clog up you’ll eventually have a heart attack. Sweep the floor, replace misplaced items to their proper place, and sift through boxes looking for items to giveaway that you no longer need or use. Plan on maintaining your garage at least quarterly and look for items to donate or sell that you no longer need or use.
Make it look roomy. Some people prefer to use their garage as an extra room to hang out or as extension of their yard for outdoor parties. You may want to consider painting the walls or putting an epoxy coating on the floor for easy cleanups.
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