How to Organize Your Garage
By Noreen Music | Organizing Tips
How to Organize Your Garage
With summer upon us, it is time to start thinking about cleaning out and organizing the garage.
The garage always ends up as a dumping ground for your unwanted or broken stuff. It's easy to shove everything in the garage out of sight until you can't park in it anymore!
Here is our step by step guide with expert tips to help you get your garage in great shape for summer. It's everything you need to know to organize your garage.
How to Start
Ensure you are wearing the appropriate clothing and protective equipment such as work gloves, dust mask, eye protection, closed-toed shoes, long pants with your hair tied back.
Gather the supplies you will need to tackle this area such as heavy-duty trash bags, shop vac, broom and a couple of large plastic baskets.
Do a basic cleaning by giving the floor a sweep or a vacuum keeping an eye out for nails, oil or chemical stains, evidence of pests.
As you are cleaning, remove any obvious trash, recycling, donation, doesn’t belong or broken items.
You are well on your way to a clean and organized garage!
Time to Declutter & Sort Into Zones
Declutter by pulling everything out onto the driveway then divide all items into the following categories:
- TOSS
- KEEP
- DONATE
- TRASH
- SELL/CONSIGN
If you have too much stuff, divide the garage in half or by zone (tools, sporting equipment, camping gear, garden tools, etc.) before moving onto the next area.
Group all the items you are keeping into like categories such as car supplies, small tools, large tools/equipment, recycle centre, garden tools, sports equipment, general storage, etc.
Assess how much room each zone is going to need and plan out your garage accordingly.
A super organized garage is always arranged with "like with like" items in defined areas.
Organizing Products for the Garage
Check online or in local stores for various garage organizational products if you need specialty storage containers, toolboxes, pegboards, or vertical/ceiling storage options made just for the garage/shed.
Work with what you have first and only purchase only what you actually need. You may be surprised by what you have already on hand or what you can re-purpose.
A rolling tool organizer works great for gardening tools or car cleaning items saving back and forth trips.
The fifth wall in your garage is the ceiling so use this vertical space for storing wood, ladder, seldom used storage boxes, camping gear, and seasonal sporting equipment.
Make sure horizontal surfaces and shelving in your garage are heavy-duty enough to support the weight of what you are storing on and in them and properly affixed to prevent accidents.
Label everything! Bins, baskets, shelves....when your stuff has a home, the easier it is for you and your family to put it away where it belongs.
Expert Tips for the Garage
Ensure birdseed is kept in a container with a tightly closing lid to keep pests out.
Create a junk box for the garage to keep those odds and ends out of your cabinets and drawers.
Keep one surface clean to work on. You can fill a pot with pencils and keep a small box on the work surface for small frequently used tools, measuring tape, etc.
Dangerous items such as chemicals, pest control sprays, or poisons, paint supplies should be stored in a fireproof lockable cabinet.
Dispose of old paint cans, chemicals, and electronics properly. Go online and check out where you can drop these items off in your community. Or you can access our DIY resource page where we have gathered a lot of this information for you already.
Organizing your garage is well worth the effort to get it there. You will be the envy of your neighbours and gone are the days you feel the need to close your garage door as quickly as possible!
Our FREE Gift For You!
Please accept this limited time offered gift to help you get and stay organized through every season.
Click on this link to receive your FREE copy of our resource guide Keeping Your Home Organized Through Every Season as our gift to you!
Let us know if you have any great tips for how to organize your garage. We love to hear from you!
If you have any questions or need more help, please leave a comment below and we will reply to you within 24 hours.
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Noreen