How to Organize Your Garage
The summertime is the perfect time to organize your garage! You’re probably using most of what is housed in the garage during the summer so why not make it all super accessible? There are multiple phases when it comes to organizing any space, but for some reason the garage always seems more daunting. Let us break it down for you so you can get to organizing!
As with any organizing project, we always follow Julie Morgenstern’s S.P.A.C.E. acronym. This acronym helps provide structure to the organizing process. If you jump to a further step without sorting or purging first, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not thoroughly engaging with the process.
Step 1: Sort
Like with any space, sorting is always the first step. The garage can oftentimes be a dumping ground of things that don’t have another home. Pull everything out (and we mean everything!) and start sorting. If you’re finding a ton of different categories, start on a broader level so you don’t get overwhelmed with the nitty-gritty. As you start to create your categories it might be helpful to label your categories with a piece of paper on or near the pile so that you don’t get your categories confused.
Step 2: Purge
Most of what is stored in the garage is not used very frequently. If frequency of use doesn’t apply to the purging process, ask yourself if what you have is still in good working condition. If you have multiples of the same thing, get rid of whichever is in worse condition. Lastly, ask yourself if there are things that you no longer need. If you have a lot of kids toys and sports equipment, see if there are things that your kids grew out of or are no longer interested in.
Step 2a: Disposal
If you’re wondering how to dispose of your unwanted belongings, there are ton of different options. If you’re disposing a lot of stuff, hire Clean Out Your House. We love using them because they will divide up all of your unwanted belongings and disperse them amongst many different resources such as Household Goods, their consignment shop, Buy and Consign, hazardous waste disposal and more. If you don't have a ton of stuff or want to bring it somewhere yourself you can check out our resources page here. Another great option is to post on Facebook Marketplace to make some money or the Facebook ‘Buy Nothing’ page to give it to someone in your neighborhood.
Step 3: Assign a home
Once you're done sorting and purging, the next phase is to assign a home for what's left. Make sure that you're keeping all your belongings by categories and whatever is most frequently used is the most accessible.
Step 4: Contain
Next, decide how you want to contain everything. You might want to consider purchasing some bins for smaller items so that they're not becoming lost within the garage. If water is an issue, check out these super durable Weathertight Totes. If you don’t have any shelving to store your belongings, purchase this super sturdy shelving.
If you're looking for a real garage transformation, Elfa might be another option for you. We love being able to customize a garage solution for our clients using this track-based system. Before we install anything for Elfa, we make sure to take a very detailed inventory of what our client has and make sure that every single thing has a home within the new system. We're able to contain smaller items in drawers and larger items on shelves or a utility track.
Step 5: Equalize
Once you're done organizing your garage, it's important to make sure that everything is labeled. This will ensure that items go back to where they belong. After every season, assess your garage and ask yourself if anything either needs to be shifted or purged.
Garage organization does not need to be daunting! Make sure you wear some gloves to avoid getting hurt by sharp objects you might encounter and an outfit you don’t care about since lots of dust will most likely be there. You will be so satisfied once you can find everything is in its’ place. Still feeling overwhelmed by the thought? Give us a call and we’ll take care of it for you!