How to Organize Your Garage

Spring is finally here, and with the warmer temperatures, crocuses and baby birds comes spring cleaning. This is the time for you to knock down those cobwebs, banish the dirt of winter and reduce the clutter that you’ve accumulated over the long cold season. While many of us concentrate on cleaning out our homes, the garage is another area that needs to be organized and in good condition. Here are some tips from Dream Garage Makeovers to get your garage in order.

• 1. Prepare for battle.
  You need to have the right tools if you’re planning on conquering the clutter in your garage. A few of the things that you will need include enough time to complete the project, some helpers who can help you move heavy items and make tough decisions, and a variety of containers and boxes that you already have around the house. (It’s best not to buy actual garage organizers at this point, because you might not know exactly what you have, nor how you want to store them, quite yet.)

• 2. Get out your Sharpies.
  Label some big boxes, Donate, Garage Sale, and Broken. Label smaller boxes with words that will vary from homeowner to homeowner; some common ones might be Tools, Garden Supplies and Sports Equipment. Have plenty of empty boxes ready to replace these as they get filled. Get a big garbage bag (no need to label this one, as it will be for garbage), too. Actually, you will probably want a number of garbage bags, particularly if you haven’t cleaned out your garage in a while! Make sure that you have your recycling bin handy, too.

• 3. Be ruthless.
  Pick up each item and put it in the correct box or the garbage bag. A good rule of thumb is that if you haven’t used a particular item in the past six months, not counting seasonal items, then you probably would not miss it. Into the Donate box it goes! If that seems too drastic, label another box with the date six months from now, and put the item in there. When it’s full, close it up. Over the course of the next six months, you can take items out if you need them, but when the date on the box passes, anything in the box gets donated or trashed. Hopefully you will have some friends who are not emotionally involved with the contents of your garage to help you with this step if you find it hard to let go of extra clutter!

• 4. Discard of unwanted items right away.
  Anything in the garbage bag needs to go out to the dumpster or curb immediately; otherwise, you risk opening the bag and taking items back out. The same goes for the Donate box: Call your local thrift shop to pick up the items, or put the boxes in the trunk of your car and drive them over when you’re done cleaning up. If you have enough Garage Sale items to make a sale worth your time, then schedule one on the calendar. Write it down in ink! If you don’t have enough, either find a friend who is having a sale, or go to the consignment shop, instead. Broken items need to be fixed within a set time frame or off to the dump they go. Remember, the point of cleaning out your garage is to get rid of your clutter permanently.

• 5. Find a place for everything.
  Now comes the fun part: organizing what you have left. You could hire a custom garage company to come in and design and build a garage for you. Another option is to put up shelves, gridwall storage, and garage cabinets yourself. Either way, you’ll need a way to organize everything. Your boxes are a good temporary start, but bins and baskets will be sturdier and will look better, besides. This can be a work in progress, if necessary; the most important part is done.

Once you have your garage completely decluttered, you’ll be thankful to have the extra space, and the time and energy expended will be totally worth it. It might seem overwhelming to get started, but once you do, you’ll be glad that you did.