You’ve got time on your hands, and you have an important task to complete. Here are our five tips on organising your garage.
The forgotten storage room
It’s a suburban secret none of us like to admit to: our garages are a mess. In-between storing surfboards, cars, bicycles, and everything else, our garages are a forgotten storage room. Suburban garages bear the brunt of our spring cleaning efforts, and become a everything-goes-here solution for when we need to clear out a room. Boxes of old toys must be clambered over to get to the passenger door of your car every morning. It’s okay: your secret shame is shared. It is, however, time to organise your garage. Here are our five tips on organising your garage:
Confront the situation
The first tip on organising your garage begins with simply: opening the door. That’s right - roll it up, hit the button, and take a look. Pull your cars out of the garage and take a look at what’s really lurking behind the scenes in your garage. Take heart and inspiration from Marie Kondo as you ponder the dusty shelves and forgotten boxes: it is possible for your garage to spark joy, and not shame, when you get started.
Schedule your time
Organising your garage is not a quick half-hour task. You’ll need a little more time on your hands to truly organise your garage, and set up a fail-safe system so that you don’t let it fall into chaos again. All of us are spending more time at home right now, so now’s as good a time as any to get started. We suggest:
- Setting aside a weekend: Devoting significant time to organising your garage pays off in the long run. Don’t skimp on your time allocation for this important task.
- Creating a tasklist: Before you start pulling out dusty boxes and separating items for the trashcan, make yourself a list of all the things that need to get done. Organising your garage is not a once-off effort. Instead, it’s adopting a new approach to prevent your garage from descending into chaos, all over again. When setting up a new system, the magic starts with making sure you’ve covered all the angles and variables. Get your notebook out, and start listing your tasks!
- Getting the family involved: Organising your garage need not be a one-man operation. Getting the whole family involved will help to ensure your new garage storage system will be adhered to in the future too. The bright sparks of the family often bring clever ideas to the fore too. Get everyone involved, and assign everyone a special selection of tasks to complete.
- Gathering everything you need: There’s no use in beginning to organise your garage if you’re going to have to stop and wait for new garage storage solutions to arrive. Instead, make your choices about what to do with your garage, and do your research. If you need to order paint, fittings, new shelving, or similar items, make sure it’s all ready to go when you begin organising your garage.
Let’s get started on your garage
Now that you’re ready to roll up the door and get started, it’s time to tuck in to your task list. We recommend you include these items on your task list:
- Open every box: Those long-forgotten boxes in the back of your garage? Open them. Don’t simply move them out, just to move them back in again. Mom’s forgotten dinner service, the kids’ old toys, and that collection of glass jars need to go somewhere...and they shouldn’t end up in the garage again.
- Organise the chaos: Once you’ve reversed your car out of the garage and into the driveway, make sure there’s enough space to start organising the chaos. Demarcate three piles, boxes, or sections, and label them: Keep, Donate, Sell. Once you’ve opened all the boxes and cleared all the shelves in your garage, start sorting everything into those three categories.
- Systematise the chaos: Now that you know what you’re going to keep, donate, and sell, it’s time to drill down to the systems you’d like to put into place within your garage. Everything that goes into the Donate pile must be set aside. Everything that goes into the Sell pile must also be set aside. Now you’re left to deal only with the things that need to be returned to your garage.
- Set up your storage solution: This is when things finally turn fun. Set up your storage system before you start returning items to your garage. If you’ve chosen to label boxes or shelving, get started with your label maker or trusty marker pen.
- The big clean: Before anything returns to the garage, it’s time for the big clean. Wipe down surfaces, wash the car, and give every item on your Keep list a dust off or clean. You may even want to give the garage a good coat of paint at this point. It’s never a bad idea to give your garage a fresh look.
Safety first
Now that you’re returning items to their rightful place in your garage, remember that safety comes first. Flammable liquids and hazardous materials must be stored correctly, so check the tins and containers for storage instructions. Make sure you abide by the safety instructions listed, to prevent any accidents in the future. Ensure your shelving is sturdy and well-constructed. Don’t store anything in the garage that doesn’t belong there.
Stick to the system
Well done! Your garage is now an organised oasis of calm, that doesn’t just store your car. Now that your garage floor is shiny, your shelves neatly packed, and the clutter has been cleared: stick to your system. Make sure everyone knows where to store tools correctly, and that the garage is not a dumping spot for the house. Set yourself and your family a challenge: anyone breaking the golden rules of the garage storage, has to buy everyone else an ice-cream!
