Yeah, the garage has probably been that one spot in the house nobody wants to clean. After all, isn’t a garage supposed to be a bit haphazard? Wrong! A garage can actually have much more utility than just housing your automobile or holding all of your miscellaneous stuff. Here are three tips to make your next ‘garage decluttering project’ a lot easier.
Get Ready to Toss Some Stuff
Do you really need that 1/8th can of 8-year-old paint? What about that pile of sockets you bought when you couldn’t find the right size? There are so many things homeowners keep because they think they will use it in the future. But, in reality, the chances of you actually finding a use for all your miscellaneous stuff is really low. Sometimes, it is better to just toss it. After all, the additional space will be of more benefit to you than the cost of potentially having to buy that same thing again in the future.
One great rule of thumb to live by is, “If you haven’t used it within the last year or two, toss it.” You need to be willing to throw things away. Sometimes it can be difficult throwing away old things (especially if they have some sort of sentiment) but try to “thank” the item for its past help and quickly move on.
Organize Everything
Once you have thrown out all of your unnecessary stuff, now it is time to organize it. This organization should extend from the garage as a whole all the way down to even your toolbox. If you feel overwhelmed with the mess, take it step by step. You don’t need to clean everything in one day. Rather, pick a section to work on—like your toolbox or the gardening supplies—and focus on organizing and cleaning as you go.
Another great way to organize things is sort them into piles. While you may feel like you are adding to the disaster by taking everything out of their previous spots, sorting everything into piles both helps you clean the bins or shelves your items originated from, and it makes it ten times easier to rearrange as necessary and put everything back in their rightful spots in the end.
Clean as You Go
As previously mentioned, decluttering without cleaning is like sweeping one pile of dirt from a room to the other side of the room thinking you solved the problem. Yes, clutter comes from excess stuff, but a lot of it also comes from a lack of cleanliness. You will feel much better about your declutter project if you clean your garage as you work to organize each of its elements.
Decluttering and organizing your garage can feel like a daunting task. But it isn’t so hard as long as you have the right mindset and the right system to both clean and organize it. Just remember that you don’t have to do it all at once.
If you decide to declutter your whole house, we can give it a deep clean when you’re done! Contact us to schedule a time for us to come make your house look spic and span.