Operation Garage Clean Up!
Tis the season for realizing how unorganized your garage is! Around this festive time of year when all of the holiday decor is revived from the mountains of boxes in the garage you begin to realize what you forgot from last year, that your garage needs to be cleaned out and organized. But the problem is, there is so much stuff and you do not know where to start. Before diving in head first, come up with a plan of attack. Envision what you want your garage to look like. Is it for sheltering the cars? Is it a work shop space? Or simply just organized storage.
Day 1: Purge Purge and Purge!
Before getting started, set up areas such as for hazardous waste, garbage, recycle, donate, sell and finally what you want to keep. Once you have the zones in order. It is important to take everything out of your garage in order to organize it. Do not try to organize while in your garage, the point is to take everything out and carefully put things back that you will use and want to keep.
Items to Keep: Memorabilia, things you’ve used in the past year, extra items for your home such as paint
Organize what you’re going to keep into categories. For example, gardening tools go with other gardening items and so on. Remember, if you have no idea when the next time you’ll use it, get rid of it.
Day 2: Clean and Inspect
Most garages are not the cleanest rooms in the home so inspect it for unwanted critters and clean the floors from debris and oil stains. Start decluttering by exposing of oddly shaped boxes and broken containers and buy new, sturdy plastic containers. To make items easier to find, use different colors labels. But remember not to mix contents, keep like items together.
Day 3: Storage Plan
Draw up a floor plan for where each container will be stored for easy access. Or if you are looking for something on the high end side, a built in garage cabinet unit will make storing everyday items accessible and leave the plastic containers for the holiday decorations.
Day 4: Everything off the Floor
Storing containers and other items like ladders invite mildew and water damage and will make your garage susceptible to become messy again. Rather, use all the wall space available to store working items and shelving for containers.
Day 5: Selling & Donating
Don’t keep all the non-keepers in a pile in the garage, finish the job done and plan a yard sale and donate items to a charity.
Day 6: Make an Entrance
Your garage is still part of your home, so make it feel as such by creating an entrance for shoes, coats, etc. Make the entrance area just as appealing as the entrance to your home.