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Make Clean Out Your Garage Day a Fun, Family Project

September 4, 2014 by Rick Scully

The Saturday after Labour Day is Clean Out Your Garage Day, an unofficial holiday.

Granted, spending Saturday digging through the clutter in your garage probably isn’t your ideal way to spend your hard-earned time off. However, a clean, orderly garage is worth the sacrifice.

Still, when the garage has become a dumping ground for the entire family, just getting started can be the most difficult task. The responsibility of cleaning out the garage often falls to a single family member. This hardly seems fair, since several members of the family are typically responsible for the mess. With that in mind, why not make cleaning out your garage a family project?

Organizing the entire family to tackle what feels like a daunting project can be challenging. However, if the mere thought of doing so makes you break out in a cold sweat, don’t worry. Here are a few tips for making Clean Out Your Garage Day a fun, family project.

Have a Brief Family Meeting

When possible, notify all family members in advance of the plan to clean the garage. If this year’s event doesn’t allow for adequate advance notice, or plans have already been established, select a more agreeable date. Then, set realistic expectations about how long the project will take.

If you’re dreading the project, everyone in your family will, too. Talk enthusiastically about cleaning the garage. Plan a fun day your family will look forward to: play music, order pizza from their favorite pizzeria, create a fun contest, have a celebratory meal when the work is done. Discuss the benefits of cleaning the garage:

Adequate space to store the family’s bikes and other outdoor goods
Easier access to favorite items like bikes, bats and balls
Save time looking for items
Reduce the hazards of tripping over items or having things fall on someone
Deter pests and vermin that thrive on clutter
Help others through the donation of unused items
A space the whole family will be proud of

Once the date and time are set, and everyone is excited about the project, it’s time to create a workable plan.

Create a Plan of Attack

Imagine four of five people trying to maneuver in a small, cluttered space. If not planned well, it’s a recipe for disaster that will frustrate everyone and kill any enthusiasm there might have been for the project. To create a workable plan to organize your garage:

Know your priorities. What do you need to store in your garage? Who needs access to it? Whose access should be restricted?
Create zones. Now that you understand how you’ll use the garage, create areas to group similar items. Possible zones include automotive, gardening, sports equipment, tools, etc. This step is essential to creating an organized space where items can be located easily.
Be prepared! A push broom, work gloves (for everyone), heavy duty garbage bags and basic tools are among the items you’ll want to have on hand. Will you be installing shelving or using plastic storage bins? Purchase needed items and have them ready. If possible, assemble shelves beforehand.
Decide how each family member can be most useful. Does one person excel at a certain task, like organizing? Would certain members work better as a team?

Armed with a plan and prepared, with everything you need on hand, you’re already well on your way to a successful Clean Out Your Garage Day. Next, let’s examine a few tips for making your family’s garage cleaning day go as smoothly as possible.

Work as a Team to Avoid Chaos

To keep the project moving, without creating chaos:

o Provide a brief overview of the day, so everyone knows what to expect.

o Relocate everything possible from the garage to the driveway.

o Group similar items together.

o Discard broken items.

o Box unused and duplicate items for donation. Avoid “just-in-case” syndrome. Be ruthless; don’t retain items that haven’t been used for a year or more.

o Clearly define each zone in your garage.

o Install shelving, hooks, etc. to use as much vertical or overhead space as safely possible.

o Return each item to the garage in its newly designated space.

o Arrange for pickup or delivery of donated goods.

o Celebrate a job well done!

The garage is clean and tidy now, but everyone must do their part to keep it that way. Since the entire family helped clean the garage, they’ll be more invested in keeping it organized. Remind everyone how important it is to put each item back in its proper place.

Cleaning the garage isn’t most people’s idea of fun. Yet, by getting the entire family onboard, creating a workable plan and making Clean Out Your Garage Day an organized event for the entire family, it can be a family day everyone will appreciate.

Organize Your Garage with Dedicated Zones

May 14, 2014 by Rick Scully

This time of year our garages can easily descend into a den of chaos. The kids are digging out the bikes and rollerblades. You’re sifting through sleds, snow shovels and Christmas decorations in search of your garden tools. Meanwhile, one (or both) of your vehicles is stuck outside because there’s never enough room to squeeze it inside the garage.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Creating some level of organization in your garage doesn’t need to be a complicated or costly affair. Optimize the space in your garage by creating related storage zones. Why are dedicated zones essential to a well-organized garage? Let’s reconsider the scenario above.

If your winter tools and sports equipment, holiday decorations and garden tools are all stored in the same area, it makes life difficult, especially when the seasons change. You’ll have to search through the winter items in order to reach the garden tools which are now in the back. This type of system breeds chaos and makes us less inclined to do the yard work.

Now, close your eyes and envision your garage as a well-organized space with separate zones for related items. The effect is similar to what you experience when you go to a hardware store. The shovels and winterization items are in one section. The garden hose and tools are in a separate location. You can easily find either type of item with minimal fuss or confusion. With that in mind, let’s apply that same system to your garage.

Like that hardware store, there are a few basic zones into which the items in a garage can typically be categorized. Let’s examine each zone and what items would best fit there.

Automotive Accessories

Create a small section to store items used to maintain your vehicles. In this zone, organize items like car wax, motor oil, windshield wiper fluid, a bucket and chamois cloths for cleaning the car. Group tools used during winter months, like snow brushes. If you keep an additional set of tires in the garage for the winter weather, these might require a separate tire storage solution.

Household Supplies

Perhaps you keep items like household cleaners and paint thinner (but not paint!) in your garage. First, be sure to safely store household chemicals in your garage. Create a dedicated zone for these items. Use a cabinet or shelf that will keep these items out of the reach of your children and pets.

Garden Tools & Supplies

Homeowners often hire a company to maintain their yard and keep it looking beautiful. Others find great pleasure in maintaining their own yards. Planting flowers and shrubbery requires lots of hard work (and tools). The last thing you want to do before a long day of work in the yard is to spend an hour raking through your garage to find your garden tools.

Don’t let this happen to you.

Instead, create a zone in your garage dedicated to storing your yard essentials: hoes, shovels, trowels, fertilizer, garden gloves, flower pots, potting soil and other yard accessories. Then you’ll be able to put your time and effort into making your yard gorgeous, rather than searching for your gardening tools.

Recycling & Garbage Cans

Garbage cans and recycling bins are frequently stored in the garage. It might be necessary to keep these items in your garage. However, if not stored properly, waste bins are open invitations to vermin. They can also detract from the aesthetics of your garage and cause unpleasant odors.

Keep recycling and garbage cans together in a single zone. Store waste in cans with lids that fit tightly. This discourages smells from escaping and pests and vermin from entering the waste cans.

Tools & Workbenches

The garage is often home to a workbench and a variety of tools. Perhaps you’ve always wanted a workstation in your garage, but don’t believe you have the room for it. Even smaller garages can accommodate a custom-built workbench or workstation. Keeping tools organized is made simple with the right toolbox, pegboard or more sophisticated storage solutions. However, recycled items are also useful. For instance, an old muffin tin makes a good place to store nails, bolts and screws. You’ll be helping the environment and organizing your garage.

Sports Equipment

Most garages are brimming with sports equipment: bikes, skis, kayaks, rollerblades and balls. If you have school-aged children, you know how quickly these items accumulate and overtake the space that was once reserved for your car. When spring comes everyone starts digging out their sports equipment. Any semblance of organization you once had descends into chaos.

That’s why sports equipment requires its own separate zone in the garage. Use hooks, baskets or other organizational tools (which we’ll discuss more next time) to organize sports equipment.

Bicycles are large and bulky, usually requiring a separate storage solution. There are a variety of solutions for bike storage ranging from a traditional school yard-style bike rack to sophisticated overhead pulley systems.

It’s clear why separate zones in your garage make life easier. Now that we’ve reviewed each zone, you might be wondering how to keep the items in each section neatly organized. In the next post we’ll discuss all of the neat solutions that will keep each section of your garage looking its very best.

Do you want an organized garage, but just don’t have the time to do the work yourself? Consider hiring a garage renovation expert to organize your garage.

How much is a disorganized garage really costing you?

October 8, 2013 by Rick Scully

Are you a Have or a Have Not?

As you have probably noticed, it’s that time again. Yes, the days are getting shorter, the kids are back in school and it’s time to set up your garage for the winter season. In our many years of helping people organize their garages, we have identified two distinct types of homeowners in our area, the haves and the have nots.

1 car garage parks bmw plus 7 high end bicycles, portable workshop and all tools — HAVE: 1 Car Garage – parks 1 BMW, 7 high performance road bicycles, flip down workbench, all garden tools & seasonal tire storage

In this case, we are talking about homeowners who have taken steps to setup and organize their garages for easy seasonal transitions. These homeowners greet the seasonal change with open arms. They know that seasonal garage setup is not a chore at all, but a simple task that can be completed in a fairly short amount of time.

On the other hand, there is the other group of homeowners, those who have not organized their garages. As you might guess, these homeowners warily glance around the inside of their garage. They desperately try to figure out how long it will take to gather up all that clutter, move all that stuff around, store all the summer tools, toys and more away and bring out the winter gear. Sometimes, these garages are so disorganized that homeowners actually consider taking almost everything outside and then bringing the stuff back inside in the order they need. Unfortunately, if they are honest with themselves, they know this will most likely never happen. The end result is chaos or worse.

Back right 1 car central toronto garage — HAVE NOT: 1 Car Garage – cluttered, no storage, unable to park family vehicle, lacks organization

Then, once the first cold snap hits for these homeowners, it’s a mad dash to move the piles from here to there and everywhere in between to make room for the car. Oh, and should the home be equipped with a 2 car garage, too often, there is so much clutter piled up that just one car can be safely squeezed into the remaining space.

The point is simple and easy to understand: an organized garage will save a lot of headaches throughout the year, but especially so when it’s time to adjust for the season change. Look, if you plan on just shoving your stuff into various piles around the garage that’s your choice. Yet, you might want to consider what a disorganized garage is really costing you.

Of course, it’s obvious that a disorganized garage costs you extra time throughout the year. Do you ever find yourself hunting all over your garage for a particular garden tool? Do you ever move stuff aside to get to more stuff behind the first pile? Have you ever sent one of your kids out to the garage to fetch a garden tool and they can’t find it? Then, you head into the garage and it takes you a bit of time to find it yourself. You can see that you could end up spending a lot more time than necessary; if only your garage was better organized, you would save yourself a lot of headache.

Another way a cluttered garage is costing you comes right out of your wallet. Our storage solution team members regularly surprise homeowners when they point out that the homeowner has two or more of the same item such as weed whackers, garden hoses or rakes, one of which was buried deep in a pile of clutter years ago. Or, in a more painful hit to your wallet, what about the car door that bangs into a wheelbarrow or other item in the garage simply because the garage is over stuffed with clutter. Whether a small dent or ding, the damage is unsightly and will most likely need repair.

A third way that a cluttered garage can end up costing also concerns your vehicle. Think of it this way. Think about what happens if a garage is so cluttered that one or both vehicles (for a 2-car garage) can’t comfortably fit inside during the winter. A vehicle that’s worth more than everything in the garage combined has to sit outside and endure the brutal winter; but your garden tools, the lawnmower, the bikes, etc get to rest comfortably indoors. Of course, when you look at it that way, it’s immediately obvious there has to be a better way.

Actually, it’s about this time of year the storage solution team here at Garage Tailors Garage starts to field anxious calls from worried homeowners. Remember, your garage is not just a dumping ground for what doesn’t belong in the house. Your garage is there for your vehicles plus your other belongings. With the right organization system in place, your car and your bikes, sports equipment, garden tools and more can comfortably occupy the same space.

Avoid Seasonal Anxiety Disorder with a Garage Changeover

October 2, 2012 by Rick Scully

Spring cleaning has become a tried and true ritual, the ideal time to gather up unwanted things for a garage sale or trash haul. Fall is also a great time of year to consider a sort and purge to transition into winter and ensure your garage is ready to do what it was built for – protect your car from the elements. But for many people, the idea of saying goodbye to summer and getting ready for winter is so off-putting they avoid it. At Garage Tailors Garage we call this common condition, Seasonal Anxiety Disorder. And the best way to alleviate symptoms is to have an organized garage.

For people with existing garage storage solution systems, the time that it takes to do the seasonal changeover is usually less than an hour. The changeover typically involves transferring the items you won’t need for a few months to the back of your garage and the ones you will be using to the front for quick access. Shovels replace rakes, the snow blower gets more prominent placement than the lawnmower and you can stash the pink, bug-eliminating windshield fluid in a cupboard and break out the blue antifreeze. Any sand or ice melting products that keep your stairs, pathways and front sidewalk slip-free get moved to a basket, which is suspended just off the floor near the front of the garage to grab when necessary. Snow tires are removed from overhead platforms or secure floor racks to be replaced with your all-weather tires until the spring. Typically people power-wash the garage in the spring to remove any salt stains from the floor, but a good soap, water and brush cleaning in the fall wouldn’t hurt.

If you’ve accumulated stuff that you no longer need, get rid of it. Give it away to a charity, have a garage sale or throw it out. Don’t put yourself in the position that led you to organize your garage in the first place. Purging should be an ongoing activity. It’s impossible to keep everything and keeping things you’ll never use again is a waste of space. For example, when kids get older, strollers get replaced by tricycles, which are replaced by scooters and bikes. Unless you’re planning on having more children, don’t keep the stroller. That’s what Craigslist and Kijiji, or the curb with a “free” sign, are for.

However, if the very idea of going into your garage to dig out winter items makes you feel queasy, you might be suffering unnecessarily from a bout of Seasonal Anxiety Disorder. Chaotic garages can be scary, but the problem is easily remedied. If you’ve never organized your garage, or the last time you did was during the past millennium, the best way to tackle it is to start in reverse. First, you decide what you need to keep, what to donate and what to throw away and then organize your garage to make space for your cars. The process takes planning, time and money, but ultimately will save you valuable time and aggravation each time you realize snow is on the way.

You can pretend the good weather will last forever and then cuss and fuss every time you find yourself scraping snow and ice from your windshield in minus 30 degrees. Or you can transform your garage with custom-designed storage solutions that address your personal needs and get into a warm, snow-free vehicle every winter morning.

At Garage Tailors Garage, we’re hoping to eradicate Seasonal Anxiety Disorder so everyone can feel good about getting the garage winter-ready. If you’re interested in knowing what could be done with your garage, we offer free in-home consultations.

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