The past week it was apparent that something in the garage had to give. With the recent move still a part of the garage and STUFF scattered throughout it was time for my wife and a detailed plan to be put into action; an action involving all the men in the house to clean and organize.
I found the following plan at www.doityourself.com website which was a great
Get Your Garage Organized
by Murray Anderson
Garages are like Rodney Dangerfield, they just don't get any respect. Got some old sports equipment – into the garage, leftover paint, into the garage, same for power tools , garden equipment and virtually everything else that doesn't have a defined space inside the house. Before you know it, your garage is a disorganized collection of 'stuff' and there is no place to park your vehicle or use a workbench. Getting your garage organized may seem like a monumental task, but in truth, if you approach the job in small steps getting it organized is an achievable goal.
- Probably the hardest thing to do when getting your garage organized is making deciding what to do with a lot of the 'stuff' in there. Many things end up in the garage, because there is no space for them in the house, but you might want to use them – sometime. You need to make some realistic decisions about things like those old golf clubs you haven't used for four years.
- Organize the things in your garage into a couple of groups – things you will keep and things you can dump. However, before just throwing things away, think about whether they can be donated or perhaps you could have a garage sale and pick up a few dollars.
- Once you know what you're keeping, sort it into categories that make sense to you such as power tools, sports equipment, yard tools and yard furniture.
Organize your things by season or function
- Create a work space /work bench so you'll have space to work on your projects.
- Allocate the storage space in your garage by season or function so you'll know where to find everything and won't need to hunt around the entire garage looking for the kid's basketball when the weather warms up, just don't forget to leave enough space so you can get your vehicle inside.
Decide how you are going to store your things
- When it comes to garage storage options you have all kinds of choices. At minimal cost you can build open shelves from wood by yourself, and simply install nails or hangers into the garage framing to keep tools up off the ground. Alternatively, storage cabinets available from home stores do a great job of storing things out of sight while protecting them from moisture and dust or open wire shelving can help store your gear in plain sight and easy reach without creating a dirt collection area.
- It's best to use multipurpose storage solutions rather than single function solutions so your newly organized garage can evolve over the years as your storage requirements change. For example once the kids leave home will you really need that bike storage rack or would ceiling hooks be a good place to store bikes when needed, but also provide a way to hang a canoe or some skis later on?
Murray Anderson is a veteran freelancer whose work has been appeared in books, newspapers and newsletters as well as on numerous web sites in both the United States and Canada. He writes on a wide range of topics including home, consumer, and personal subjects as well as general business and Marketing specific topics.
Read more: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/get-garage-organized#ixzz1Z57adPBXMost of us guys know that the women in our lives are much more organized and efficient at projects such as organizing the garage and could have wrote an article just like the one reposted here. Take that quality and experience into any project that involves organization and better use of the space we have in our homes. The new wall shelves, shoe storage cubes and bench area made a huge difference and all had a women’ touch to them.
No comments:
Post a Comment