Last weekend we decided to clean out the garage. Stuff had been accumulating all year and it was beginning to feel oppressive. My husband and I don’t like cleaning the garage any more than you do, so here are some quick tips to declutter your garage with as little frustration as possible.
In an ideal world, you should take everything out of the garage, sort it all, give the garage a thorough cleaning, but who has time for that? Besides it was wet outside. So we decided to go with the 80-20 rule and tackle the biggest clutter problems.
Here are my Tips for Tidying the Garage While Keeping Your Sanity Intact:
- Break the job into manageable chunks. If you can’t face the whole mess at once, choose one section, such as a single shelf unit, or a particularly cluttered corner. If possible, take everything out of the space, and only put back what really belongs there. Put items that live elsewhere in their correct place. If you don’t have a good place for something, you may need to designate a holding area until you have tackled more of the garage.
- Consider the season. Why are you storing out-of-season stuff in the garage, where you have to work around it every day? If you have an alternative storage area, move things you won’t be using for months, like beach umbrellas, fishing gear, or lawn chairs, there instead. It’s amazing how big a pile of seasonal stuff you can find when you start looking: a sand toy here, a chair hanging over there, a bait bucket teetering atop some tiki torches in the corner … This will open up space for the six dozen goose decoys, layout blind and archery paraphernalia, or whatever fall gear your household has schlepped into the garage when you weren’t looking. (I consider this a win when the seasonal stuff coming in does not exceed the seasonal stuff going out.)
- Categorize and conquer. Sort the stuff into three piles: Keep, Donate/Sell, and Trash. Use these suggestions when deciding what to keep and what you don’t actually need. Make sure donated items work and can still be used safely. If it’s broken, damaged or outdated, toss it—Unless it falls into one of these household hazardous waste categories. Local friends can find info on how to dispose of those items at the end of this post. Others will have to search for HHW collection programs near them.
- Do it now, or toss it. Perhaps you found a pile of perfectly good toys or sports equipment your family no longer needs, so you decide to sell them at a yard sale. Great—IF you regularly hold yard sales. If not, either put one on the calendar immediately or put all that stuff in the car and drop it at your favorite secondhand charity. The same logic applies to stuff like that half-used bag of shrub fertilizer. If you don’t remember when you last touched it, either go out and use it at once or get rid of it.
- Make it easy to find and easy to put away. Every garage has five half-used containers of something because it was easier to buy more than find what you already had. Make everything findable by labeling, using clear plastic totes or hanging in plain sight. (Gung-ho organizers can use color-coded storage tubs, or custom-printed labels. The rest of us can use a black Sharpie.) In addition, store like items together. If the car-care products are all on the same shelf, there’s a good chance you can find the car wax when you need it. Finally, think location, location, location. Ask yourself, “Will it be easy for family members to put this back if I store it here?” Obviously, the more often an item is used, the more important that question is. And hard-to-use storage gizmos are just as bad as poorly located items. If you want them to put it away, make it as easy as possible. (Those stylish Pottery Barn baskets might look nice, but if a jumbo-sized cheap plastic tote is what works best, don’t complain.
- Think Vertically. One thing the experts seem to agree on: as much as possible, get everything off the floor. Use vertical space, not floor space. Store as much as possible along the walls and consider hanging bulky objects (ladders, kayaks, skis) from the rafters. Use shelves, peg board, ceiling hooks and ropes, whatever works. You will find tons of storage options at the local hardware store, there must be at least one option that will work for your needs. It’s amazing how much stuff you can store on a wall with some planning and little help from Lowes.
And finally, a little poem to inspire you and give you a chuckle (with a nod to Dr. Seuss).
The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to mow,
So I looked at the junk
And said, “All this must go.”
I stood with my husband
We stood there, we two
And he said, “How I wish
I had something else to do.”
But the space ‘round the car
Was just barely enough
So I said, “It is time.
Let’s get rid of this stuff.”
How to dispose of HHW (household hazardous waste):
Lancaster County has a facility that takes HHW all year.
Berks and Chester Counties have specific collection days for HHW.
