The Great Garage Clean-Up - The Prequel

I'm just a little giddy about tomorrow (yes, I'm officially a dork).  The first thing I need to do (and maybe you do to?), it to take a few 'before' pictures of my messy garage.

Are you in?  Even if you don't have enough time to clean your garage, maybe you can pick a small area and get it cleaned and organized.


Something that's worked quite well for me in the past is to  make a list of all the types of things that need to be stored in my garage.  Here's a sample:

• gardening supplies
• automotive supplies
• tools
• camping gear/Scout gear
• food storage/freezer
• paint cans/painting supplies
• holiday decorations
• scrap wood
• car seats
• luggage
• A VEHICLE
• etc...

As you can see, our garage has to serve a lot of purposes.  I am fortunate to have a slightly oversize garage - it's the same width as a normal two car garage (which means we could theoretically park both our car and our van in it - just as long as we didn't plan on opening the car doors).  Our extra  space is the extra 8-ish feet clear across the back.

Once you know what needs to go back in, make a sort of map of your garage - here's one I just drew up that shows roughly where things are supposed to be in my garage right now.  In theory. In actuality, I have lots of stuff to take to donate and stuff that needs to go to the dump and a fair amount of stuff that just needs to be put away, but I can't get to the shelves because of, well, junk.  I plan on shifting a few things around tomorrow because I think they'll work better elsewhere. Food storage stays where it is, paint, garden and automotive just need a little straightening up - but they're fine where they're at, it's mostly the tools that need to be better organized and accessible. 



Don't be intimidated by my highly technical drawing...