Tips for Keeping Your Garage in Order

Either your car won’t fit in the garage, or you can’t find it when you need it can be a significant hassle. Let’s start with the obvious: cars aren’t cheap, and it would be embarrassing and financially burdensome to buy a new vehicle simply because you couldn’t locate yours in the garage. Second, if you have too much junk in your garage to fit your car in there, you and your vehicle and its contents will be subjected to the elements, including extreme heat or cold, wind, rain, snow, sleet, ice, and more. It doesn’t make any sense, period. Even if life isn’t fair, you should be able to park your car inside the garage. Let’s figure out how to arrange your garage storage better so that we may achieve this goal.

Many garages I’ve been in have been crammed to the gills with stuff; some have been empty (well, it was a newly built house), and then there’s my dad’s garage. His garage is the coolest. It’s spacious, for one thing, and organized exceptionally well. His garage is a work of art in terms of organization. Did he finish it in one sitting? Of course not; he went without a garage for quite some time before finally constructing one.

Having a well-organized garage is possible, even in a bit of space. You should start by wondering, “What am I going to put in my garage for?” (No, this is not a “what the heck is a toothbrush for?” type of inquiry). Do you plan on storing automobiles (or watercraft) in the garage? Do you plan to utilize it as a workshop? Do you want or need a place to store your lawn care tools? After determining what to do with your garage (that’s right, we’re using “purpose” as a verb here), you may begin the “Steps to Organization” to get organized.

This next piece may seem repetitive if you have read my prior posts. That’s how it looks, and it is. For my articles to be helpful, I have included the Steps to Organization in each. If you’ve read one of my earlier posts on organizing and are familiar with the process, you may move forward to the example.

Getting organized can be done by following a few simple steps. Picture yourself working on a puzzle. Where do you even begin? (First, you open the box, but I assume we are past that.) So, what would you agree with? Depending on your personality, you may want to begin by organizing the components. Pieces with straight edges should be sorted into a separate piles, while those with curved edges should be returned to the bottom of the box. Therefore, let’s start with :

First, we’ll sort everything out (cue the trumpets and confetti; this is the fun part; we’re finally getting started).

We’ll go on to the next stage when you’ve finished organizing the parts. (I know, I know – I haven’t told you how or what to sort; that’s in the article’s next section. Just keep going!) What step do you take after that in putting together a puzzle? Do we resolve the issue and then abandon it? Should we first assemble the center section (those without a straight edge)? No, we construct a boundary around our components first. Second, you should

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Second, construct a border (more applause, horns).

The wall is up, but our work is not yet complete. The puzzle’s true beauty would be lost if you merely framed it. It’s the same with setting up systems. Putting up a fence is terrific, but now you must enforce it. When should you use a border? I appreciate your inquiry (well, I understand my inquiry, but if you were here, you would have inquired as well). To learn more about the puzzle, we look at its boundary. The border gives us an idea of the overall size. It’s a path forward and a beacon of hope as we figure out where to put the parts on the inside. (I took a break from puzzles to focus on trains but plan to return to them shortly. (Excuse the muddled metaphor, but I must go on.) The third, then, is to

PHASE 3: COMPLETING THE PUZZLES

When imagining a puzzle, this makes sense, as a collection of irregularly shaped pieces will be lying around. In what way does this facilitate planning? Can you think back to the first stage, when we were sorting? All you’re doing is putting things away because those are the gaps that need to be filled. (There’s hope; the tunnel does end.) I take it we are through here. Having completed the initial sorting, border construction, and component filling, our puzzle is complete. Right? Wrong! I’m afraid there’s still one more move to make. (I’m not sorry, but I figured that saying “tough luck, bucko, quit being a whiner” sounded a lot meaner than “actually, I’m not sorry.”) Where do we go from here? Consider this moment: once you’ve finished a puzzle, how do you put it away? Do you abandon it in its constructed location? Do you disassemble everything so you can start over if you want to? Do you smear it with glue, hoping it will transform into a masterpiece? For the sake of our comparison (i.e., learning how to put together a puzzle and organizing a closet), we will say no, no, yes. Leaving it where it is wouldn’t solve anything and would only add to the chaos. We don’t disassemble it, no (What? Are you kidding me? Please don’t dismantle all of our hard work just yet. We put goo on it, which qualifies as a work of art. Remember that this is just a metaphor before you go and grab some real good and muck things up. The glue is what keeps the pieces of the puzzle in place and looking neat. That’s just what we need to make our newly decluttered space appear good. So the last thing to do is:

Final Step #4: Maintain Order (I neglected the fanfare for Step #3, so let’s throw some fanfare, fireworks, and a laser light show here for good measure).

Now that we’ve climbed the “Steps of Organization” together let’s look at an illustration.

It’s important to note that if you have short bursts of time to concentrate on your organizing endeavor, you should still do it.

1. Classifying

This might be time-consuming because the garage is often used as a dumping ground. Opening your garage door on a warm spring Saturday morning and placing a garage sale sign in your front yard is a surefire way to make things move more quickly if you live in a residential area or close to a major thoroughfare. Yard sales will flock to your door if you put an ad in the paper. People will randomly walk into your garage while you’re sorting through it and offer you money for the junk. The time has come to decide whether or not anything should be kept. Sorry, that’s not for sale, and point them in the direction of the stuff you’ve already decided to get rid of. This may not be the best choice if you reside in Minnesota during the dead of winter.

Once you’ve located your automobile, you may get back to sorting by creating piles. This may include opening a door or moving a vehicle. You should separate your belongings into at least four piles: trash, donate/yard sale, garage storage, and non-garage storage. (The “keep, but not in the garage pile” can temporarily reside there for the time being, but it will need to be relocated at some point.) Take care not to bring more clutter into the house with this final heap to clear out the garage. Review the two piles you plan to maintain after completing the initial sorting. Evaluate each thing to see if it is vital. Giving back any belongings you have kept for someone else would be best. (If they’re the ones who abandoned them, you may explain that you’re taking an organization class and that some jerk on the internet told you to have a yard sale if you didn’t get your stuff back.)

Find a new home for everything that is staying with you but does not belong in the garage. Please don’t set it aside for later; find a place for it right now. Start with removing the apparent garbage, then selling or donating the “get it out of my house” pile, and finally putting away the rest.

The Second Step: Wall Construction

When planning a garage layout, the first question is how much room you have. This may seem simple but don’t only consider the room’s square footage. The beautiful thing about garages is that you can use all the available space, including the floor, the walls, and the ceiling.

The second consideration is PEGBOARD. Pegboard is a fantastic invention that fits in a garage decor well. Most pegboard is either brown or white (with each side having a different color). Inquire with the helpful staff at your neighborhood hardware store for installation advice. I just learned that they offer this great-looking galvanized steel pegboard. In actuality, the metal pegboard is part of a more extensive system for storage and management. The most crucial factor is the desired aesthetic for the garage. Pegboard’s versatility is one of its greatest strengths. Several variations on personalizing a pegboard are shown below.

Primitive Reels:

Screwdriver hooks may store any tool that is thin enough to fit through the hole but has a top that prevents it from going through, such as a screwdriver, pliers, or scissors.
Simple hooks are also available. Long, straight hooks protrude from the wall and are considered plain hooks. If it has a hole, a bare hook can hang it. This includes wires, hoses, and even clothes. I’ve hooked two of these together to support our shop broom.
Assortment packs are the way to go if you need a wide range of storage options at a reasonable price. Jars for storing nuts, washers, or other small components may be included in some sets.
Bins and Baskets:
Larger objects (i.e., those that will not fall through the perforations) are ideal for storage in wire baskets. They are available in a wide range of forms.
The firm bases of accessory boxes make them suitable for storing tiny and more enormous goods.
Nails, screws, nuts, and bolts, among others, can be stored in smaller containers designed for hand tools.
When you’ve got the minor stuff, like tools, under control, you can turn your attention to the more considerable property. You can choose a floor-standing garden tool organizer or investigate wall-mounted garden tool strips, depending on whether you have more floor or wall space. Consider how your garage is set up as you explore the numerous available alternatives.

Since garages can vary in size and shape, it’s essential to consider these factors before settling on a design for your garage border. If you run out of the area on the garage floor when constructing the frame, move on to the walls. If you’re out of wall space, evaluate whether or not you need everything and whether or not some of it belongs in the garage. Their ceiling-mounted storage solutions are top-notch. Garage storage solutions range from hoists that can raise bicycles to the ceiling on pulleys to shelving systems that can be attached to the top above your garage door. If you’re handy, you can even construct your solution, but be careful not to injure yourself.

My father constructed wooden shelves in the garage and screwed jar covers on the underside. The jars serve as containers for his nails, screws, and other small hardware. Because the pots are transparent, you can easily track what’s inside and reuse materials that might otherwise go to waste.

The Third Stage: Completing the Puzzle

The tricky part is at the border. Afterward, you can begin putting things away. Once again, as you are putting things away, ask yourself if you need them. Adjustments may be necessary, but you may make those as you go.

Fourth, always maintain order.

Don’t skip the last crucial step. Don’t stop using your strategy; if the garage starts getting cluttered again quickly, something is wrong with your approach. It will be difficult to enforce the border if people have trouble understanding it. The process of being more organized shouldn’t be challenging, so if it is, something is wrong.

Do not forget that you are capable of overcoming this challenge. Just keep things basic and well-organized.

Author: Michelle Crooker

We trust you found our garage-cleaning advice helpful. How to Organize [http://how-to-organize.crookers-sdc.com] is where you may find helpful hints and suggestions for keeping your life in order.

To jump to the portion of our site dedicated to garage organization, click here: Garage Organization [http://how-to-organize.crookers-sdc.com/garage-organization/].

We trust you found our garage-cleaning advice helpful. Have fun in your newly arranged room.

linda