Apart from being the space where you keep your vehicles, the garage is the only part of the house where all the “unwanted” or currently not needed items go. All those seasonal camping gear, sports equipment, christmas decors, and the likes, are all stored albeit haphazardly, in the garage.
The garage is, sadly, also the section of the house considered to be the final resting place of piles of junk accumulated through time. Garage junk accumulates fast especially with a busy household. Before you knew it, you are almost tip-toeing in your own garage squeezing your body to fit in the diminishing space reserved for human passage. And most importantly, the state of the accumulated mish-mash may turn your garage into a fire hazard just waiting for that tiny spark to light the whole thing ablaze.
There is only one solution to this. And this is garage organisation. Organising your garage is no easy task especially if you haven’t organised it in years. The sheer volume of things stored in an unorganised garage is enough to overwhelm anyone attempting to put even a semblance of order in it.
But before you get overwhelmed, know also that the payoff is huge. An organised garage makes your life easier, more productive, and most importantly, safe.
1. Analyse
Many of the biggest problems in garage organising is that initially, when the garage was constructed, there was no space planning. When planning the space, figure out where do you want the individual items stored and how do you want each space to function. First in the priority is of course the vehicle storage, then plan out where do you want to put the seasonal equipment, sporting gears, tools, gardening materials, etc, or whether or not you want a workplace yourself. Once you figure out the spaces and their functions, it will be easier for you to purge and organise.
2. Clear
In any organising effort, it is much better to start out in a clean slate. Get tarps and blankets and place all the items in an open area like your driveway or front lawn. Once the garage is clear, get some cleaning done as this would be an opportunity for you to do a major sweeping or mopping. It might be a good opportunity too to paint the walls if you want a fresh look.
3. Sort
Categorise everything. Depending on how meticulous you are with your things, you can organise everything from big items down to the little screws and nails. Put all the gardening equipment in one spot, your tools on the next, and so on and so forth until you group everything according to their use and importance.
4. Purge
Get rid of everything you haven’t used in years. Get boxes for everything you have to throw away, donate, sell, or recycle. Once this is done you might be surprised if 50 per cent of the items are not going back inside the garage.
5. Inventory
Take an inventory of all the remaining items grouped into your own categories which may include sporting equipment, seasonal decors, gardening tools, etc. Upon inventory, you will be able to determine the type of storage needed for each category and whether or not you have them or you have to buy them.
6. Plan
Now that you have a clear picture of the amount of items going back into the garage, you can now plan the garage space accordingly, basing your design on the space needed to provide space for each particular categories. Be creative in your planning. Get brilliant ideas from popular design magazines on organising and storage techniques.
7. Organise
This is the part where you put everything back in. Put each category in its desired space based on the planning you did earlier. Put each item in each category.
8. Schedule
Now that you are aware that garage organisation is no walk in the park, and that the longer the interval of garage organisation, the harder it gets, plan the next schedule of garage organising. Establishing a regular schedule of garage organisation would make each activity easier.