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Life is messy? Nope, just the garage!
It was a mess – trust me. Unfortunately, I don’t have proof to show you, but it was bad enough that I couldn’t park my car in the garage. Kyle had been working on a series of summer projects, and the garage was out of control. He was trying to fix our small outboard dinghy motor (that will need to be a separate blog post altogether, but he’s probably too upset to even think about it right now). In our house, he installed a wood stove to replace our fireplace, and he’s been splitting and stacking wood around our house in preparation for this winter.
Back up … slowly
All of the sudden, Kyle was motivated to clean out the garage. At first I was upset that he started cleaning before I could take any BEFORE pictures … Wait, what was I thinking? He was cleaning the garage!
I quickly got over my attitude, and took a few semi-before pics to go along with the after pictures.
There’s always room for improvement, and we’ll work to consolidate and clean up the garage even further so we can have room for our summer outdoor furniture cushions and all of the sailboat equipment that we’ll remove from the boat prior to winter storage.
Fall is the perfect time
As the weather starts to get cooler, it’s a nice reminder to take some time to clean up the garage and keep the area organized. I don’t know about you, but our garage can quickly get out of hand.
Organization Method
While it may seem overwhelming, the steps to clean and organize a garage are similar to any other area of your house. As I shared in the post on downsizing, I like to follow the recommendations from “The Home Edit” by Clea Shearer & Joanna Teplin. Depending on the current state, you may need to take this #simplesolution in stages.
Teamwork makes the dream work
This may seem ridiculous, but even before I start taking everything out of the garage, I go through the main area and pick up the trash that can be immediately thrown away. Often we will have papers, packaging and boxes from products that were just used on projects.
These items should’ve been thrown away immediately, but … I really can’t shouldn’t complain – Kyle is amazing with our home improvement projects. I’m grateful that he’s so handy, and it’s a good thing that I enjoy cleaning up. We make a good team!
Our Garage is a Must-have
Our detached garage was one of the main factors that helped us decide to purchase the property in NWI. We had to downsize to fit into the main house / cottage, but we had a large 2-car garage with additional space on the sides and back of the garage. The garage needed to be cleaned out and finished prior to us moving our tools and building supplies in. After all, this was our staging area for the home renovation.
We insulated the attic, walls and garage door, added pegboard and OSB to the walls, increased the lighting output and drywalled the ceiling. We added 5 closed industrial steel shelves purchased from ULINE to help with our building supplies and tool management. The peg board also allows for quick access to tools and other storage needs.
Back to Cleaning the Garage
Ok, so what did Kyle do to clean the garage this time? He took all of the big items out of the garage. Next, he organized everything that was out of place into groupings – such as tools, bins and boxes, bolts and screws, etc. He returned them to their proper ‘home’ in the various locations throughout the garage. He stacked and organized the empty bins in preparation for items coming off the boat in the near future.
He swept out the dirt and leaves that had collected all summer. And he finally parked the vehicles – both of them – in the garage and called it a day!
What do you Think?
Do you have any tips or tricks that you use to keep your garage clean and organized? If you tried our solution, please let us know what worked. Share your feedback in the comments below. We would love to hear from you!
– Kara from Zeke Life
Live like Zeke
You’re such a good boy!
