Keeping your garage clean and orderly can sometimes seem almost impossible. Often a de facto dumping ground for most homes or businesses, they can easily hide items that should have been disgarded, recycled or given away years ago.
Trust me when I say that the technicians here at Nask Door have seen garages that have ranged from the organized to the…., well let’s just say “not so organized.”
No matter where your garage sits on the organization spectrum, everyone can use a few tips to keep their garage neat and orderly. So in this post I’ll cover some of our observations made in some of the more organized garages that we’ve visited:
Use the Vertical Space – One common feature of organized garages is that they make good use of vertical space. Depending on the amount of space available, you can use free-standing or installed shelving. This is particularly helpful when you keep a vehicle in the garage. Note: Keep enough open space around the garage door to ensure that it can operate without difficulty.
Lose the Junk Before Organizing – Several of our clients suggest that pulling everything out of the garage was their key to success. After finding “lost treasures” as well as junk, having everything together makes it easy to replace it in an organized fashion.
Keep It, Donate It or Throw It Away – Once the contents of your garage has been pulled out, purge the stuff you don’t need! My personal rule is that if I haven’t used it within the last year it goes…. But that’s a personal thing.
Group Like Items – Generally we’ve seen that grouping like items keeps everything organized and easy to use. It also saves space.
Assign a Purpose to Each Area – For those that use their garage for different activities like workshop, arts and crafts area, man cave or anything else, assign a purpose to each are of the garage and then keep that area tidy. It will give you more usable space for all activities.
Label Everything – I’m guilty of putting everything into a bin only to wonder where everything has gone. Haven’t you? So label everything so that you don’t have to root around every bin in the garage to find what you’re looking for.
The next time you’re looking at your own garage, consider using these tips to get your clutter under control. Remember, the process does take some work but if you a approach it methodically you’ll quickly find that you’ve conquered the onslaught of clutter to rediscover another clean, organized & useful room for your home or business.