Your garage can easily become cluttered, especially if it is used as storage space. Even if your garage is just a place to keep your car and tools, the space can become full of empty bottles of fertilizer or old car parts. With the help of Sears Garage Doors, here are eight ways to approach to getting your garage ready for spring.
Move Everything Out
The first step is to move all of the items out of the garage. This helps you get a feel for what your garage space truly has to offer, and allows you to organize the area from scratch. This step also helps you get a better idea of which stuff you keep in this part of the house.
Make decisions about what to keep or throw out
Sort everything into piles by category, such as lawn or auto care, tools, etc. Now comes the hard part: you need to go through and figure out which items you need to keep or get rid of. You should only keep the items that serve a real purpose by being kept in this area. For example, that tub of car-wax would be best-kept in your garage but not that box of old yearbooks. The stuff that should not be in your garage can be thrown out, donated, or even sold at a garage sale.
Draw up a plan for how to organize the space
Now that you know what is staying and what is leaving, draw up a plan on where each item will go. For example, bulky items like lawnmowers should be kept in corners so that they are out of the way. Smaller items should go on shelves or in cabinets. To keep your garage from future clutter, it is important you make a plan for where each item will go.
Group similar items together
A key part of this plan is grouping similar items together. This way, if your car needs a fresh coat of wax then you know to look at the auto care area. If the hedges out front of the house are looking a little under the weather, then grab the fertilizer from the lawn-care section. This step will prevent diffing through shelves in the future because you will always have a general idea for where an item goes.
Use pegboards to hang items from
Pegboards and effective way to use your garage’s wall space. This is simple, just hang the pegboard on the wall and place pins through the holes to hold your stuff. These work particularly well for tools, so that they can be reached easily instead of rifling through a desk.
Install a foldable workbench
A foldable workbench will help reduce space by opening up the area that a workbench would cover for storing other items, or even your car. Without the a station constantly getting in your way as you walk through this part of the house, you can much more garage space.
Utilize the ceiling
Garages offer a lot of overhead space that can reduce clutter by storing items like bicycles, or even boxes if done properly. Be careful not to store anything too heavy up there, in case something false on top of your car, or onto any other valuable item you have in this room. Things like bicycles are perfect for overhead storage due to their low weight.
Follow the plan
After taking the time to through and move everything, and then assigning every item a place from your car to your tools, it is important to stick to the plan. Following this plan will help prevent clutter in the future, and if done properly will mean that this process will not need to be repeated for a long time.
