There’s a place in every home where stuff goes. Not necessarily the important stuff, but the stuff that’s only used occasionally or no longer needed. For most people, that is the garage. Garages are designed to house our cars, but they hold much more.
Tools, hardware, toys, exercise equipment, boxes of old clothes, books, etc. The list could go on forever. And if you’ve been in your house for more than a couple of years and haven’t been intentional about regularly cleaning and organizing your garage space, there’s a good chance your garage is an extensive, messy collection of random items. Your “stuff collection” might be so big your cars are being forced to sit outside!
Would you like to reclaim that space? Sure, you would, but you don’t have the time to tackle such a humongous task. Well, rest easy. Here, we’ll give you some tips on how to organize a messy garage. After reading this, you can gradually return your garage through these simple steps.
- Make a list. The first step to tackling a reorganization task of this size is to bring order to it—that starts by taking inventory. Go through your garage and make a list of what you want to keep and what you either want to throw away or donate. As long as you’re not overly sentimental, this can be accomplished in under an hour. If you’ve got a little more time on your hands, you can even start piles that will make it easier to organize when you have spare time.
- Eliminate packaging. It might be tools or pieces of hardware, but you probably have a lot of stuff in your garage in its original packaging. If you want to know how to organize a messy garage, it means getting rid of things like this that take up more space than needed. Get rid of that packaging because you will be storing things in a more organized fashion and won’t need it.
- Invest in some containers. Here’s where you’ll need to lay out a little money, but not much. Go to your local home improvement store and get some containers. Now that you’ve made a list of what you’ll keep and have got all your things out of their original containers, you know exactly what kinds and how many storage containers you’ll need. You might need a tackle box for pieces of hardware and even some larger totes for other items. Get what you need, come home, and pack what you’ve organized into the containers.
- Optional: Installing shelving or cabinets. You might be finished depending on how many larger items you have left over and the space you have. If you still have lawn equipment, tools, bikes, and the like taking up space where your cars need to be, you might want to invest extra in some shelving or cabinets. This doesn’t have to cost you any time if you don’t want to. Professional garage organizing companies like Garage Designs of St. Louis can do all the work. Best of all, their summer sale means that you can spend a minimum amount to get the space you need to reclaim your garage space.
- Sweep and hose out the garage and make small repairs. Our last tip about how to organize a messy garage is a simple one. Now that your garage is more organized, you might get your first glimpse at its floor. Take some time to clean and wash it. You can also now get to the walls, so use this opportunity to patch any holes in your drywall or do any painting needed.
Cleaning out and organizing your garage may look like a mammoth chore, but it doesn’t have to be. Now that you know more about organizing a messy garage, you can tackle this chore strategically to save time and money. By simply breaking it into manageable chunks and gradually spending a little time, you’ll have your garage back to being the space it was designed to be.
Make sure to take advantage of Garage Design’s Summer Sale. And if you’re like some homeowners, cleaning your garage might inspire you to make better use of your garage space. If that’s the case, Garage Design has a team of experts ready to help you. Happy organizing!
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