There’s a pretty good chance your garage isn’t as neat as you want it to, right? Unless you have someone who cleans the house on a daily basis, we’re sure that your garage looks like a cross between a garbage bin and a hardware store. Because we’re constantly working, studying, and running errands, it’s hard for one family to keep everything organised and neat.
However, a tidy garage where everything is in place allows your living space to “breathe” better. If you are ready to start cleaning and organising your garage, here’s the first thing you need: a lot of large plastic bins. But those plastic containers can be expensive if you’re going to need plenty. Thus, you may want to think about using fruit bins instead. You’re already organising your garage, so you don’t want to spend money, too.
Recycled plastic containers used for transporting and storing fruits and vegetables are sturdy and don’t corrode over time. You will need a lot of those bins, though, so collect as many as you can from your local grocery, if they can spare some.
Declutter First
Depending on the size of your garage, it might take you days to declutter all the stuff there. Make sure to involve your family, relatives, and some close friends in the process of decluttering the garage. But if you want to do it by yourself, then by all means, go ahead. Wouldn’t it be fun, though, to include everyone in your goal to organise your garage?
Go through every single item and categorise them into four: keep, donate, sell, and toss. How do you know it’s time to let go of an item? If you haven’t used it in the past year, put it in the donate, sell, or toss pile. If you believe that you don’t have to let go of an item just because you spent a lot of money on it, here’s a nugget for you: That money was spent already, and it won’t come back even if you keep the item (that you haven’t used in months) in your garage. It’s only taking up space that you can use for other more important things.
For the items that you’ve put in the toss pile, you can choose whether to throw them away or recycle them. While it’s always good to recycle, if you don’t have the time to do it, simply turn over the items to your local recycling centres.
Organise the Remaining Items
Once the garage has been decluttered—all the items that don’t need to be there have been removed either to throw away, sell, or donate—it’s time to organise the remaining things and put everything in their proper places. Figure out how much space your car needs and then work on what’s left. You should build shelves so that you’ll have a lot more space where to put the containers. Group similar items together—auto care, sports equipment, gardening, tools, and other household items. Put labels on the plastic containers and then place the items inside. Lock the cover over the bin to make sure that the items won’t fall from the shelves.
Next, put the bins in zones with the ones that you use frequently, such as auto care items and gardening tools, within easy reach. You can store the rarely used items such as holiday decors on the top shelves. As for bulkier items, you can store those in the corner of the garage.
Once you have decluttered and organised all items, you should maintain your new tidy garage by putting items in their proper place whenever you use them. This way, you’ll keep the garage organised, and you won’t have to go through this whole process ever again.
