Steps for a clutter-free Garage

An article by Guest Mum    Comments Off

The garage: the repository for all unwanted, awkward items: the things you can’t bear to part with but really should, things that might be handy one day but likely won’t; the camping gear, the archive boxes of documents, the kids’ old bikes. You know the deal. Too often, people can’t even fit their cars into their garages, leaving them exposed to the elements.

There is a wealth of advice out there about how much better your life is when you declutter your house – but what about the garage, where things tend to go following your house clear-out, so here’s some advice to help you declutter the catch-all that is the garage:

1. Before you start, find some good, solid shelving if you don’t already have any in your garage. Assemble some sturdy boxes – you might want to get some plastic archive boxes so you can see what’s inside. Labels and markers will also be useful, as will hooks and other hanging storage solutions.
2. Move everything out – yes, right out. It’s going to be a deep clean and it’s going to start from the depths. Get it all into the driveway so you can have a proper look at all your stuff, in the harsh light of day.
3. Once it’s out, into three piles: yes, no and maybe. Further sort the “no” pile into rubbish and charity, and then go about categorising, boxing and labelling the yes pile. You can come back to the maybe pile when you’ve had some time to consider it.
4. Put up appropriate shelving in the garage, ready to receive your newly sorted items.
5. Here is where your organisational skills come into play. Any colour-coding, labelling, marking and categorisation that can be done, do it! It will help when you need something later.
6. Replace everything in a logical order. Have a tools section, a gardening section, a storage section and make sure everything can be easily accessed and you don’t have to dig around in boxes when you need to get at something later.

While it can be daunting to clear out your garage, it will be worth it when you have plenty of room to store your car or motorcycle.

Vivienne Egan writes for GEM Motoring Assist.

Guest Mum