How to declutter and organize your garage

The garage is an important part of your home. It can hold vehicles, recreational equipment, and lawnmowers with plenty of room for tools and other equipment.

Unfortunately, garages often become dumping grounds for forgotten items.

Some people pack them full of items that eventually become forgotten and unused until they no longer have room to park their vehicles. If your garage is among the many that are overly stuffed and lacking space, it’s time to de-clutter and organize it.

Options for ridding the garage of clutter.

Part of the reason why many people let their garages become cluttered and virtually useless until cleaned and organized is the amount of time it takes to fix the problem. Unless you have some teens at home who want to earn a little extra money over a weekend, you might not have the time to do it yourself. Many people hire a crew to clean cluttered garages, but that certainly could be a costly proposition. A better option is to create a plan of attack by listing items that should stay in the garage and everything that should not.

Organize the clutter.

There are three types of clutter. Those are things that you want to keep, things that you could donate or sell, and things that you should throw away. The items that should be thrown away need to go as soon as possible. Having a local recycling location can help you to safely dispose of them without adding to the bulk of a local landfill. Items you could donate should go as soon as possible, too, and you could sell other items during a yard sale or out of your newly de-cluttered garage after you finish clearing it out.

Organize your garage.

Once you have the clutter removed, you need to plan how you will put a limited number of items back into the garage. There are three general options for storage inside a garage. Those are on the floor, overhead, or along the walls. Installing rivet racks can help you organize things that go on the floor by giving you sturdy metal shelving that is open on all four sides while in the open or three sides if you place it against a wall.

You also could install pegboards to hold frequently used tools, lawn equipment, and recreational items like bicycles. If your garage has rafters, you can use them to create overhead storage space by installing some plywood and placing season items overhead until it is time to use them. Once you have a nicely de-cluttered and well-organized garage, it’s time for a garage sale to make a little money by selling items of worth that you no longer need.