Tackling the Garage
Tackling the garage was a little more intense than I envisioned. While I have visions of a space similar to the one below, alas, my reality looks much different. An entirely new magazine-worthy space is not what I have but, I did clear out the clutter, implement a system I can use, and clean up our garage. Just as I tell my kids, focus on “progress not perfection”.
Start in a circle
I love following GoCleanCo ‘s feed. She gives an abundance of cleaning motivation. Feeling overwhelmed at the task of the garage, I reminded myself of Sarah’s advice, “move in a circle”. Beginning by moving in a circle helps keep you on track. I began in a circle in the garage and quickly realized I would need to narrow down my task. Therefore, I chose the storage room as my main focus.
Our garage like many others I am sure, houses not only my car, but our camper, camping gear, bikes, Jeff’s tools, tool boxes, toys, my children’s keepsakes, and seasonal decor. The main portion of our garage holds items that I would classify as “Jeff’s”. The storage room built within our garage I can easily identify as mainly “my stuff”.
Pull Everything Out
After I swept and cleaned what I could in the garage, I started working in a circle inside the storage room: pulling out one storage container at a time. Being able to go through each container allows me to see what needs to be culled and tossed and what items I still use. Identifying labels on the fronts of each container helps to easily identify what I need when I go into the storage room throughout the year.
Organize Like Items
Once you have worked in a circle, pulled all items out, then organize like items. I had no clue how much Christmas decor I had. My fall decor was lost amongst all the Christmas. There are three main categories within my storage room: Christmas decor, fall decor, and keepsakes. (See how I recently decorated my home for fall here.) Once the front of each tote was labeled (I had to skip the stack right next to the wall due large Christmas decorations. When Jeff helps me get all Christmas decor down this year, new labels and totes will be assigned to this stack), I placed them in stacks together with labels facing out. One problem I had been running into was my labeling was on top of the totes. I had no way of knowing what was inside unless I took everything down from its stack – so time consuming!
What I’ve Learned
From my garage experience, I believe my take away is: there is always some cleaning and/or decluttering to be done in your home. While I would love to be able to have all matching storage totes as seen below, I am super pumped that I was able to go through three boxes that I had yet to unpack from our last year’s move. Cleaning out this garage space brings peace to my mind. The ability to walk into this room and easily identify what tote holds what I need is a huge win in my book. Maybe future garage projects will include swapping out mismatched totes with matching ones.
Now to decide, how much Christmas decor is too much Christmas decor???
How about you? Do you clean out your garage regularly? What tips have you found helpful? Let me know if my life lessons in tackling the garage have been beneficial to you! Including some posts from women who have organized their garages like professionals hopefully provides some inspiration for you to tackle your garage!
