AMAZING-ly Helpful Tips On The Best Ways To Organize Your Garage

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Amazing—people use the term ‘amazing’ to describe many things that are just plain average. The word ‘amazing’ should be reserved for things that are truly awesome, marvelous, awe-inspiring. It should be used to describe objects that have zing, zip, zest; events that are incredible, noteworthy; people who bring greatness to the world. One of the places that is often neglected in our home update efforts is where one of our biggest investments lives. When was the last time that you took a good review of your garage? Is it starting to look a bit cluttered and disorganized? Are you worried that your car might not be able to fit in it’s space much longer?

During moments of cleaning/organizing your home, it seems like the garage is the best place to stash those odd items that you don’t need right now but also don’t want to throw away or donate. Your garage ends up holding all kinds of things from boxes, bikes, toys, tools, yard equipment, sports equipment, auto care products, and more. Pretty soon your garage is packed full of stuff and you’re overwhelmed with the idea of even trying to organize it.

That’s why we wanted to bring you some AMAZING-ly  helpful tips on the best ways to organize a garage

Organizing Your Garage Awesome Tip #1: Declutter

Your car is awesome, and you want to keep it that way. It’s not just a way to get you from A to B. It’s a means of taking you to and from your livelihood. In football season, it’s an awesome party bus. And during the school year, you’d swear your car were a taxi. And all this awesomeness means you should clean up and organize your garage so you can keep your car in it year round.

Start by clearing as much clutter as you can. Throw out all the junk and clutter in your garage that has accumulated over time. These are items that have been in a sort of limbo, not in shape to donate but something you think you might use one day… maybe… perhaps. Next,  move every object to one side of the room in order to create a giant space. You need enough room to create three piles. If there’s just too much stuff to create a big empty space, clear enough space in three different areas, or start early enough so you can place objects out on the lawn. Lay the three tarps out flat in these empty spaces; they’re going to be holding a lot of objects. Now—go! Sort every item into three piles: 1—Keep, 2—Sell or Donate, 3—Toss out. If it’s broke, don’t fix it. If it’s expired, by all means, toss. If you haven’t used it recently, toss it. A good timeline for deciding is two years. Create your own categories for items you’re still using or can’t part with, and place them in labeled stackable bins. Box up items you’re selling or donating, and bag up trash.

After you clean out the clutter, you should develop a plan for what you would like to do with this area of your home. Try thinking of each area as a zone and drawing out a plan to label each zone.

Organizing Your Garage Marvelous Tip #2: Organize

You’ll marvel at all the newfound space you have after you’ve cleaned up all that clutter. Once you have some room to breathe, the next step is organizing the items you’ve decided should stay in your garage according to the zones you’ve designated in tip 1. Take your ‘keeper’ categories and decide what’s staying in the garage and what goes elsewhere. Now organize! Move each item to it’s designated zone and evaluate to ensure the items work in that area.

Organizing Your Garage Awe-inspiring Tip #3: Design

Now, it’s time to design your brand-new living space, and make it awe-inspiring!  Start by figuring out how much space you’ll need for the big-ticket items like the lawn mower, and place them as far away from the car as you can get them. Tools and chemicals can go in one area. Boxed-up items you’ll use other times of the year such as Christmas decorations can go in an area that’s furthest out of the way but not too hard to get to when Dad has to go looking for them. If you’ve got bikes, install hooks close to the garage door to keep them off much-needed floor space.

Organizing Your Garage Zinger Tip #4: Spruce It Up

Give your garage a little zing with a brand-new paint color, epoxied floor, updated floor mats, and even new lighting! Make it a space you enjoy visiting.

Organizing Your Garage Incredible Tip #5: Use Creative Storage Solutions

It may sound incredible, but the more you store items in open shelving and wall hooks, the less likely your new garage is to get messed up again. Home Depot, Lowes, and Ikea all have incredibly affordable and functional storage items such as stackable bins, wall hooks, bicycle hooks, opening shelving, and vertical organizing systems that will help keep your amazing new garage from falling back into its old messy self. Things like hooks and pegs, wall shelves, storage cabinets, etc. can make a huge difference in the way your garage looks and how easy it is to find something in your garage. Also, if you find that you still have a lot of items that don’t fit anywhere but you still don’t want to throw them away, we’ve got you covered. Consider self-storage for those items and simply pull them out when you need them!

Noteworthy: Of note, be especially careful with chemicals. Toss expired chemicals in proper containers. If you’re unsure of how to go about getting rid of them safely, go online to get each chemical’s ‘SDS’ — safety data sheet.

Organizing Your Garage Great Tip #5: Set Up for Long-term Success

Talk about a ‘great’ room! Now that you’ve gotten things organized, you want to keep it that way. Studies show that the nicer a garage looks, the cleaner and more organized it’s kept. What a great new living space you have, now that you’ve cleaned out all the clutter, mess, and debris in your garage. See—AMAZING!

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