Organizing Garages

Does your garage look like a tornado ripped through it? Well, you're not alone. Most garages today don't do what they were designed to do - hold cars! Garages have become what I call the "dead zone" - a place to dump everything and anything that people don't want to deal with. Sound familiar? There is an easy way to tackle the garage this summer without losing your shirt (unless it's hot) or your peace of mind. Here's how to do it, step by step.

Remember it is a PROCESS NOT AN EVENT! It's going to take some time.
1) Start with having the right tools for the job - garbage bags, boxes or cans, recycle bags & boxes, thick black marker, label maker, packing and/or duct tape, broom or shop vac, empty vehicle

Now you may wonder about this eclectic list, but it will soon make sense. The list above is what you need to begin the first phase of organizing your garage - the clean out. You have to go through all of the items in the garage and decide if you want, use or need it. This is where the boxes or bags come in handy. Use bags for soft or lighter items (clothing, toys etc) and boxes for hard or sharp edged items (books, equipment etc) that you do not want. Paper and cardboard can go in recycle bags or boxes based on weight.

2) Put the "keep" items to one side of the garage and label the box or bag. Keep "like" items together (balls, toys) and different apart (gardening and car supplies). Put the unwanted items to the other side. This is when you can use the black marker, save using the label maker for the permanent label on the container.

3) Depending on the amount and type of unwanted items that are left from the clean out, you can either, recycle, donate, consign, throw out or hold a garage sale. Each one of the options has more or less work associated with it.
The simplest and least time consuming is to load up your empty vehicle and take it to a donation centre of your choosing. Look in your local yellow pages for a centre near you. Some of them will even give you a charitable receipt for income tax purposes.
If you choose to consign it, be prepared to either take a photo of the items and send it to them or have them come to see it. Consignment shops are picky about what they choose to sell. They often have restrictions such as dry cleaned clothes only, no damaged furniture etc. This process takes longer to complete.
Holding a garage sale consumes the most time and effort, as you have to sort, price, display and work the event. At the end of it though, you might have some extra spending money.

4) Now it's time to clean the garage. Use the broom and dust pan first, to get up the big stuff and then use the shop vac to vacuum the entire floor area. Make sure to vacuum ceiling corners and walls for spider webs and dust bunnies. If you want, you can even power wash the floor.

5) Now you need to see what is left from the clean out and decide how to "contain" it. I suggest wherever possible to use wall and ceiling space instead of floor space. It would be nice to get your car in again. At this phase you might have to spend some money to purchase garage organizing products.

Shelving is neccessary. Buy shelves that are deep and sturdy to hold plastic containers that can be stacked and labeled (now you can use the label maker). Remember to put "like" items together and "different" apart. Shelving should be braced to the wall for safety.

Use the walls to put up all gardening tools, bikes, shovels, ski & golf equipment etc. Use the ceiling for off-season storage. There are many companies that specialize in garage organizing products.

When this all done, enjoy driving into your organized garage!